


Tides of Time

by Rinienne



Series: Project Blue Fire [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst with a Happy Ending, Destroy Ending, Family, M/M, Paragon Commander Shepard, Romance, Science Fiction, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2017-11-19 22:50:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 35
Words: 138,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinienne/pseuds/Rinienne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A year since the end of the Reaper War and life slowly returns to normal for everyone in the galaxy. Shepard's understanding of normal although, is different from most other people. Secretly, he misses the thrill of adventure, of battle, and a chance to save at least one more life.<br/>As some people say, be careful what you wish for, and now Shepard is sent on a mission to rescue a little girl, whom Cerberus intends to use in their plan of restarting the end of the world. Yet again, he gathers his crew, gets involved in intergalactic politics, while at the same time, tries to save his own relationship with Kaidan. </p><p><b>Previously:</b> Blue Fire in The Eyes of The Sky</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank my beta [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801), for helping me with my grammar and for just being an awesome person he is.  
> (Currently, only chapters 1-13 and every chapter starting from 17 are beta'ed.)

**Prologue**

A gray-haired man dressed in a white lab coat walked into an enormous room in the very core of a hidden research facility. He looked up on a construction in the very middle of this room built from crescent metal bars wired together to form a circle approximately fifteen meters in diameter. Several large tubes connected to three support beams were glowing in a dim light, pumping element zero to the basis of the entire construction.

In the very middle of the mechanism was a naked asari, held in a mass effect stasis field, helpless. She raised her head to glare at the gray-haired man, her eyes filled with pain and anguish, but there wasn't anything threatening in them. It was a look of a person begging for death.

The man in the lab coat ignored her.

TiDES was the proud name of the entire mechanism. Not everyone working on its construction knew the meaning of that abbreviation, but they didn't question it. The gray-haired man on the other hand, knew what the machine was supposed to do, he had been in the lead of its development from the very beginning, for four long years since the blueprints of the machine were discovered.

"Begin the test," the man ordered tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat.

Several scientists around him moved to their positions at the control panels on the other side of the room. The protective screens dropped around the TiDES, before the entire room seemed to come to life: the metal ring in the center started to spin effusing flashes of blue energy, and everything behind the protective screens lid up.

"The dark energy level is ten percent from the potential and rising," announced one of the assistants.

"The Gateway is opening; its current diameter is two millimeters. All systems are stable," supported the second one.

"Dark energy level is thirty percent and rising. The Gateway's size is eighteen millimeters. All systems are stable."

A red light suddenly started to blink on a panel next to the gray-haired man, and an alarm sounded around the research facility. Every scientist hurried to power the TiDES down.

"The test subject stopped responding," one of the assistants explained.

The bright lights behind the protective screen went down, making it possible to see the other side of the room. What left of the asari, now a scorched skeleton, was smoking in the middle of the metal circle.

"Clean this mess," the man in the lab coat sighed, before he turned around and left.

The room adjacent to the area the man exited from was smaller and brightly lit with several luminescent lamps built into the ceiling. It was nearly empty, except for several terminals and personal lockers next to one of its walls.

The man took off his lab coat, hanging it in a locker with a sigh. It was the third subject that died during the test runs, none them came even close to providing the mechanism with enough power. The gray-haired man was starting to lose hope.

"Nearly two centimeters?" a calm voice from the terminal asked. "Not exactly a result I was expecting."

"Sir," the gray-haired man turned towards the voice slightly startled. "I'm sorry, sir, the test subject was very weak, we couldn’t expect anything better considering -- ” he tried to explain.

"I'm not judging you," the voice from the terminal interrupted him. "And don't worry, I will provide you with a subject powerful enough to open the Gateway."

"But, sir," the gray-haired man tried to reason, "is it even possible to find someone suitable for this?"

"I said, don't worry about it," the voice reassured calmly, like it always did. "Leave this matter to me."

 

**Part One**

**The Lost Child**

**Chapter 1**

The Systems Alliance's headquarters looked busy, drowned in everyday routine of the largest military base on Earth. Dozens of officers and soldiers were hurrying to attend to their duties stopping only to pass a datapad, share a few words with a comrade, or an occasional salute to someone with a higher rank.

In general, everything looked as Shepard remembered it almost two years ago, before the Reaper fleet arrived to Earth destroying everything that stood in their way.

Sometimes it felt as if everything happened in another lifetime.

Now, a lot of things had changed. The building, which had been nearly destroyed, looked like the Reapers had never even touched it, and all the people around behaved like nothing had ever happened. Or at least they were really good at pretending.

Most of the soldiers didn’t even recognize Shepard as he was passing by, trying not to pay much attention to the surroundings. Occasionally, he was still catching a glimpse of utter surprise and fascination among the crowd as the recognition was settling into their minds, but most of the time people were choosing to ignore him.

To tell the truth, it was something Shepard was grateful for. He'd never refused to give an autograph when someone asked, but he'd always felt uncomfortable about it. He preferred to be just a guy, just a soldier, who did his duty, even if that duty was to save the world.

There was a reception desk before the elevators leading to the higher floors. The receptionist was a young woman in her mid-twenties dressed in a standard alliance uniform, who gifted Shepard with a soft smile. Shepard smiled back and attempted a quick maneuver to the elevators. He felt a familiar tingle of the ID recognition scanners as he reached the elevator doors, before the lock beeped and turned red.

“Excuse me, sir!” the receptionist called out. “It’s a restricted area, you need a special pass before entering.”

“What?” Shepard surprised. “Since when?”

“Since half a year ago,” the receptionist sighed. “You’re new in here, aren’t you?”

“Well, you can say that,” Shepard grinned. For some reason someone assuming him a newcomer seemed amusing for the ex-commander.

“First time in Vancouver?” the girl smiled leaning forward over her desk and looking Shepard right in the eyes while activating the omni-tool on her wrist. It was very obvious that she was flirting.

“Nah, I live here,” Shepard shook his head placing his elbow on the top side of the counter desk, resting his chin on his left hand so the girl could see the thin platinum band on his ring finger.

The message it seemed was received. The girl had never stopped to smile, but Shepard still could see a note of disappointment crossing her features as she focused on the readings from the omni-tool.

Then she suddenly froze in place. “Oh my god,” she inhaled. It took her several long seconds before she managed to get a hold of herself standing up and saluting. “Excuse me, sir! You may proceed, sir! Admiral Hackett is waiting for you!”

“Relax,” Shepard sighed. “I'm still technically retired, I don’t have a rank for you to salute.”

The girl’s shoulders visibly relaxed as tension and shock eased, “I’m sorry, you’re still a hero, no matter the rank. And,” she cast her eyes down smiling apologetically, “sorry about earlier.”

“It’s ok,” Shepard nodded. “And thanks for the clearance,” he smiled before turning back to the elevators and making his way to one of the top floors, pondering what the admiral needed.

Depending on the results of his medical examination, Shepard’s leave was due to end in two months, but Hackett had called him earlier that morning asking to drop by his office as soon as Shepard had some free time. The admiral had tried to sound casual, but he knew perfectly well that lately Shepard had nothing but free time, so his request sounded more like an immediate order.

Shepard’s suspicions grew even higher as the elevator doors opened to the sight of the admiral waiting for him in the hallway. “Looking great, Shepard,” Hackett said. Shepard knew that the admiral was an honest person, but still suspected that any sort of compliments besides good field performance coming from him was more of a formality, or means to mitigate whatever bad news he had in store. “You have no idea how good it is to see you finally on your feet.”

And it was good indeed. Shepard himself couldn’t believe that he managed to recover after the explosion on the Citadel. Walking towards the catalyst’s core, discharging the magazine-clip of his gun into it, he'd considered himself a goner. But yet, after everything went black, he somehow managed to open his eyes again, finding himself in a hospital bed with dozens of different tubes and wires attached to his body and the sleeping frame of Kaidan seated uncomfortably on a chair next to his bed.

None of the doctors at the time had known for sure if he could ever walk again, save the idea of returning to active duty. But somehow he managed to get better and several months after the war he was able to stand on his own. Now, a year out of the hospital, the only inconvenience left, was an occasional pain in his joints and muscles.

“I was taken good care of,” Shepard smiled politely, “I thank my husband for that.”

“Well, look at you,” the admiral nodded walking Shepard down the corridor leading to his office, his hands gathered behind his back, “went through hell and back, saved the galaxy and even had time to build a personal life. Hell of a multitasker, I’d say.”

“I assume, discussing my life and wellbeing wasn’t the reason you invited me?”

“No, it wasn’t,” Hackett agreed. They finally reached the office and the admiral invited Shepard in, gesturing to sit on one of the chairs in front of the desk. “Actually, I’ve been planning to ask if you’re interested in reinstatement. We have some… problems you could really help us deal with.”

To tell the truth, Shepard had been thinking a lot about it. At first, he'd been thankful for the end of the war and looked forward about finally settling down to live a normal life, even if he hadn’t known for sure if his body would function fully ever again.

He was wrong about it.

After over eight months of doing nothing but taking care of Shepard, Kaidan had returned to duty in the reserves working with the Alliance as the human biotic specialist, resuming his work with the biotic special division program. With Kaidan spending most of the day at work, Shepard found himself drowned in boredom, spending his time watching TV, cleaning and cooking dinners as he waited for his lover to return from work.

With time the role of a house-wife started to irritate him to the point where his temper started to snap. Thankfully, he'd never unleashed it on Kaidan, but the last year was difficult for both of them.

When Shepard received a call from the admiral, he suspected a request like that, he even hoped for it to happen. No matter what the task was, even if he was going to be assigned to do nothing else, but fill out papers, Shepard wanted to return.

“Would it be something you will need to think about?” the admiral asked snapping Shepard back to reality.

“No, sir,” Shepard shook his head, “I had plenty of time to think. I would like to return to duty, sir.”

“Good,” Hackett acknowledged. “With your medical record, there is no way of returning to hot spots of course, but your knowledge in some areas is exactly what we need right now.”

“So, what can I help you with?” the commander inquired.

The admiral looked Shepard in the eyes and sighed. He stood from his chair and moved to the wall behind his desk, reaching for a panel attached to it. A section of the wall slid open revealing a big screen with several images across it.

“Several days ago our agents informed us of a contraband shipment delivered to Earth,” the admiral started to explain. We still don’t know what was in it, but there is something you might find important -- the container was delivered from the Iera system, Shadow Sea.”

Shepard blinked feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline as he saw the chart of the familiar star system on the screen. There was only one planet in Iera someone could smuggle from. “Horizon,” he whispered.

“Yes, and that is not all,” admiral continued, “we managed to track and find the container, but it was empty.”

Hackett pressed several more buttons on the panel and the image on the screen changed. Now it was showing a plane white box, approximately a meter and a half long and half a meter wide.

“There was an insignia on it,” Hackett explained. He zoomed on one of the corners of the container and Shepard felt a chill run down his spine.

“This cannot be true,” he said seeing the familiar hexagram shaped symbol. “Cerberus.”

***

It was an unusually warm and sunny day for the Vancouver’s March. The surprisingly clean streets of the city center were filled with different people: mostly human, but occasionally Shepard could see a turian or an asari among them, which for the commander had started to look surprisingly natural.

It was unbelievable how good everything looked here. Sometimes it was still possible to see half ruined buildings further away and some buildings in the center were still covered in green construction nets, but the streets were clean, with neatly cut trees and bushes around sidewalks and boulevards, with most of the stores working, most of the cafés and bars. It almost looked like the war had never accrued.

Shepard perfectly knew that it wasn’t the case, he knew that the moment he walked past the center to any of the city suburb, if he dug deeper under this first impression of tranquility, he could find a lot of dirt, a lot of destroyed buildings, people still living on dry rations or in quickly build trailer-style cabins, waiting for their houses to be rebuild. It almost looked like someone tried to quickly clean up a mess in a room by putting everything under a bed or into a closet, so it looked clean, but if one was only to open that closet, they'd be buried under the pile of garbage hidden in it.

It also looked exactly like Shepard felt.

On outside Shepard seemed perfectly fine. Thanks to the modern medicine, he didn’t even have many scars left on his face and body after the incident. But it only took Shepard five minutes of additional walk before his right knee started to ache. The commander took a deep breath and continued his way to a café, trying to not pay attention to the pain. In the end, Shepard thought, it was going to be something he would have to live with for the rest of his life.

The reason Shepard came here was to meet with Kaidan, whose office was temporarily moved into a building of the Vancouver Community College as the portion of the headquarters dedicated for study rooms was still in a process of being rebuild. The campus was in walking distance from one of the small restaurants, which Kaidan picked as a destination for his lunch breaks.

Shepard finally reached the restaurant, picking one of the tables in an open area outside the establishment. It was a nice place, somewhat quiet with a good view on a small green area under what once used to be a rather large office building, but now was fully wrapped in construction nets.

The place itself reminded him of Apollo’s on the Citadel, where he used to go with Kaidan back during the Reaper invasion. The thought, even if it seemed ridiculous together with the ‘reaper invasion’ part, brought some warm memories and it somewhat dulled the pain in his knee.

The waitress, Jess, whom he'd known for several months, came to him with the menu. She was dressed in a green apron with the logo of the establishment ontop of a simple skirt and a blouse. Her black hair was cut shorter than the line of her shoulders and she looked at least fifteen years younger than Shepard, but talked to him like he was one of her old friends. The commander also could swear he hadn't yet seen her not chewing gum.

“Hey, John,” she greeted him with a smile, “you’re earlier than usual today.”

“Yeah, had some things to take care of,” Shepard nodded, “got free earlier.”

“Want to order something or just a beer, while waiting for your husband?” She inquired.

“I’ll go with beer, thanks,” Shepard nodded.

“Alright, be right back with your order.” She said and turned around returning to the indoor part of the establishment.

Jess didn’t even ask what beer he wanted. He and Kaidan had been dining here so often that all of the people working in the café knew them, together with their preferences in food and drinks. Shepard also was certain that Jess knew who he was, knew who Kaidan was, but to his relief she'd never brought it up.

Shepard sighed and extracted a datapad from his bag, starting to read his new mission assignment for the third time. After a year of doing nothing, it felt somewhat surreal to return to work. Even more so, considering that work was connected to Cerberus, the organization he was sure vanished together with the Illusive Man.

 _“Cerberus isn't just an organization, or the people behind it. Cerberus is an idea. That idea is not so easily destroyed,”_ he suddenly remembered the words the Illusive Man had said once. Did it mean that they were still alive and kicking, after all this time? And if they did, what possibly could they bring to Earth from Horizon?

The report was indicating a big fight over something in the container. Whatever happened there, led to deaths of five Cerberus agents, who most likely were killed with biotics. It either were some really well-organized thugs deciding to steal the cargo from Cerberus, or whatever it was in the cargo was alive and decided to go free.

Shepard started to rub his temples. One of his hands dug into his grown hair. It was still somewhat strange for him to have anything longer than several millimeters growing there. He thought about shaving it off again as he felt the most comfortable with the buzz cut, but then remembered how much Kaidan liked his hair that way.

The comfort of the buzz-cut was just another thing Shepard was ready to give up for his husband.

Shepard’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a small movement on the corner of his eyes. Someone else wouldn’t have noticed it, but years of the military service where you had to be on your toes day and night, noticing every single detail off in the surroundings, every unusual sound even if you were asleep, as it was the only way to survive, paid off.

Instinctively he turned around getting a hold on something from the left side of him. This something turned out to be a small arm of a child not older than five or six years, dressed in a long shirt which at some point Shepard suspected was white, but now it was torn and dirty so it was really impossible to distinguish the color, and the same level of dirtiness pants. The child head was shaved no more than a week ago and now looked like the hairstyle Shepard used to have last year.

“Hey now, what were you trying to find in my pocket?” Shepard narrowed his eyebrows, trying to look angry while his heart felt like tearing from his chest by looking at the kid who probably hadn’t eaten in few days.

The child didn’t reply, just stood there looking at the commander with unbelievably blue eyes, without a single note of fear or regret reading in them.

“All right then, I know you were trying to steal a cred-chit,” Shepard sighed still holding the kid by the arm, “you know, you could’ve just asked. Are you hungry?”

The child’s expression changed becoming hopeful.

“All right, climb on the chair, we’ll figure some food,” Shepard smiled.

The kid nodded and carefully retrieved the hand from Shepard’s grip, then climbed on a chair on the other side of the table keeping a watchful eye on the commander. Shepard meanwhile looked around, trying to find if there was anyone watching them. Anyone who could know the kid, but no-one seemed to pay attention.

“What’s your name?” Shepard asked, but the kid simply continued to look at him without saying a word.

“Do you have parents? Home?” Commander tried again, but with no result.

Jess chose this moment to reappear from the main building with a bottle of beer. She gave Shepard a surprised look as she noticed the child.

“I left you for only a few minutes and you’ve already found an orphan to protect,” she chuckled shaking her head.

“Do you know him?” Shepard inquired.

“No,” Jess replied, “it’s the first time I see him.”

“All right, I’ll figure something out. Can you bring anything to eat for him meanwhile?”

“Sure,” Jess shrugged with a smile, “be here in a moment.”

* * *

The nameless child was half-way through a rather large plate of chicken soup when Kaidan finally showed up. He approached the table eyeing the kid with surprise before turning his attention to Shepard.

“Uh, John… anything I should know?” he asked tentatively, taking a seat next his husband.

“Besides the fact that not everyone is as lucky as we are?” Shepard asked with a shrug.

For a moment Kaidan was silent looking at Shepard like he was trying to read his mind. For what Shepard knew, that was exactly what Kaidan was doing, because he'd known him for so long, that sometimes he didn't need words to understand him. Then Kaidan turned his attention to the child.

“Hey, little girl, do you have a name?” he smiled.

“Ugh, a girl?” Shepard surprised.

“Well, yeah, can’t you tell?” Kaidan chuckled. “So?” He tried to talk to the kid again, but with no result. When he realized he wasn't going to get an answer, he turned his attention back to Shepard, “we need to call the police or any public service responsible for this sort of things,” he said as he opened the menu. “The girl is either ran from an orphanage or got lost and has someone looking for her right now.”

Hearing it, the child suddenly climbed down from her chair and moved to Shepard, embracing the man in her small arms. For a moment Shepard remained stuck shocked before he finally moved his own arms to wrap them around the kid. Something turned in his belly upside down that moment, starting to bounce around, but whatever it was, it wasn’t unpleasant.

Shepard looked at his husband who was now eyeing him with surprise. “Huh,” was the only thing Kaidan managed to pronounce.

“I think it means that I will have to find out if she’s lost without the police part,” Shepard sighed.

Kaidan placed his menu back on the table and nodded. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” he inquired, then he turned to the girl and added: “hey, little one, we are going to get you some ice cream. Just wait us here, all right?”

The girl nodded and returned back to her seat, watching as Kaidan pulled his husband from the chair and tugged him to the corner of the café’s outdoor yard.

“For the first time I have no idea what to say,” Kaidan sighed, crossing his arms on his chest, “or how to react.”

“What? I will just need to call some orphanages and check the extranet if there anything about missing children,” Shepard smiled, trying to encourage his husband. “I have half of a day free anyway.”

“You can’t just do it,” Kaidan whispered. “What if you won’t have enough time today? What will we do with her then?”

Shepard looked into Kaidan’s eyes as it had always helped him to understand his partner better. There were many emotions he could read in them and some that he couldn’t. Kaidan in his turn seemed to be trying to do the same.

"You worry too much," Shepard shook his head, "I'm sure, I can deal with it in a few hours."

“John, it’s not a hamster or a fish, it’s a child!" Kaidan tried again, his expression almost panicked, "what you’re suggesting is called kidnaping, and last time I checked it was illegal,” he said.

He rubbed his face with his palm and swore quietly under his breath fidgeting his feet. To Shepard, it looked like his husband had a huge fight going on inside his own mind, but it was impossible to tell what were the sides of his mental argument. Most logical to Shepard seemed the assumption that it was the wish to trust Shepard that occupied Kaidan's mind, but surprisingly he started to understand that he wished it to be something else. Even if he couldn’t tell what exactly he wanted it to be.

“All right,” Kaidan finally nodded, “all right, try that. But we are calling somewhere, anywhere if you aren’t able to find anything by the end of the evening. Because even if the kid doesn’t have a family, we can’t just bring her home. Even for one night.”

“Ok,” Shepard agreed. For some reason he started to feel somewhat angry at Kaidan, even if everything the other man said sounded very reasonable. Shepard wasn’t even sure what was making him so upset.

“Now, let us finally eat, because I have only half an hour of my lunch break left. I've spent the whole morning running around the training facility with my students, blasting holographic husks, so I really need my calories back,” Kaidan sighed as he turned around returning to their table.


	2. Chapter 2

The scan of the extranet didn't give any results. Shepard had taken a picture of the little girl and launched a facial recognition program checking every missing person database he had access to, but found nothing. An hour and a third sundae later he started to contact every orphanage that existed in Vancouver, but none of those establishments had any of their children missing either.

At the end of the third hour, he had attracted an attention of a police officer, who found a well-dressed man and a dirty child suspicious. It took another fifteen minutes to explain the situation. In the end, the officer advised Shepard to simply give up and send the girl to the closest orphanage and, if he still wanted to help to find her home, no-one could stop him from doing so afterwards.

Shepard was sitting on a bench in a small park watching the sunset and trying to figure what to do next. To his greatest disappointment, he started to realize that Kaidan was right, and that the police officer was right too. Shepard couldn't take the kid home, he couldn't risk the chance someone would find out and charge him with kidnapping. He doubted any reasonable court would find him guilty, but the time he would have to spend dealing with the procedures if it happened, could be a long one.

Not to mention how happy it would make every tabloid journalist from Alliance Space to the Terminus Systems.

Plus, there was also the mission. Shepard had to head to the crime scene tomorrow morning and probably fly to Horizon afterwards. The thought of possibly flying anywhere seemed very exciting to the commander. He wasn't sure if he was ready to risk it yet.

Shepard glanced at the girl, who was sitting next to him on the bench. Her face was turned to the sun and eyes closed, as if she was enjoying the sensation of warmth on her face. Shepard also noticed that her skin was now covered in goosebumps and swore at the back of his mind for not thinking about the quickly dropping temperature sooner. He took off the black hoodie he was currently wearing and covered the girl’s shoulders with it. The child opened her eyes and looked at the commander with surprise, but then snuggled into the hoodie with a content smile.

It was strange to watch her. Shepard knew that children at her age should already be talking, so maybe she had some sort of development problems. But at the same time, she was reacting to everything like an adult. Curious, fascinated, but adult. Even the moment he'd activated his omni-tool to scan the extranet, she tugged his arm closer to her face to take a look at the device, like she'd never seen it before, but instead of simply grabbing the glowing thing and starting to randomly press buttons, she gave it a thoughtful look and left it alone.

She was… different.

“I’m sorry, I've tried everything,” Shepard finally announced, “for today, I mean,” he added catching her confused look. “I’ll need to find you a place to sleep, and will try to do something more tomorrow, deal?”

The girl reminded silent.

Shepard sighed and activated his omni-tool again, trying to make a call. The audio transmitter in his ear beeped and only a moment later he heard a familiar voice answering his call.

“Hey, Shepard, it’s great to hear from you,” Liara greeted sounding tired, but happy at the same time.

“Finally, I've got a convenient excuse to call,” the commander chuckled.

“Oh, now you need excuses to call a friend?”

Shepard spent good fifteen or even twenty minutes talking to her just about everything. After the war ended, Liara picked up her research on protheans. She was allowed to return to the Mars archives to look for more information to finish her book and by now she was almost done writing it.

She told him, the research had became easier since Javik agreed to help. Shepard was surprised to hear it, and even more surprised to find out that since most of the Mass Relays had been repaired, the two of them started to visit to different archeological sites together.

Never-the-less, most of Liara’s work was still connected to the information market. Shepard wasn't even surprised when she told him that she'd already knew about his reinstatement.

Before they finally said their goodbyes, the commander asked her to check her own links and find out about any families with children arriving to Vancouver during the last several days. He also thought about asking her about Cerberus activities, but it wasn't something he could discuss over a call, even if it was encrypted. Plus, Shepard was sure Liara would've contacted him herself if she knew anything.

Leaving the girl in the orphanage was difficult, but it was the proper thing to do. Shepard learned  years ago, that the moral decisions rarely felt right at the time. But the knowledge and his years of experience dealing with hard choices, didn’t make it easier. When she understood what was going on, the young girl started to shake her head and cry clinging to the commander.

Shepard knelt before the girl, placing his hand on her small shoulder, "I wish I could take you with me, but these people will take good care about you. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he promised.

***

When Shepard finally reached the door of his apartment, he felt empty and exhausted. The lights were on, so it meant Kaidan had already returned from work. For the first time in a year, it was Shepard’s turn to be home later and surprisingly the thought made him smirk.

The smell of cooked meat reaching his nostrils turned this smirk into a wide smile. Apparently, it was also Kaidan’s turn to cook. An image of the biotic standing in the kitchen wearing nothing but an apron appeared in his imagination and he felt a sudden ping of arousal. Probably, it was something Shepard needed right now to get his mind off the events of the day.

Shepard found Kaidan exactly where he expected him to be – standing next to the stove and frying something on a pan. Unfortunately, the other man wasn't wearing any aprons and wasn't naked, but wearing a simple old tee and a pair of sweats. Even in simple clothes, he still looked good, with his broad shoulders and muscular back hidden little under the thin fabric of a form fitting shirt. Shepard’s eyes slid further down and stopped on the curve of Kaidan's buttocks taking a moment to appreciate the view.

“Are you going to just stand there, halfway between the corridor and the kitchen?” Kaidan asked not even turning his head.

Shepard took it as a sign and approached Kaidan, wrapping his arms around the other man’s waist, letting his palm slid underneath Kaidan’s shirt, resting against the flat muscles of his stomach. Shepard’s lips pressed against Kaidan’s neck starting to cover it with light kisses, which made the other man hiss.

“Could we perhaps have a dinner first?” Kaidan asked.

“Not that hungry,” Shepard admitted.

“Well, maybe you’re not, but I am. You know, hungry biotics get grumpy.”

“Yeah, I know,” Shepard nodded, slightly startled at his husband's cold tone. He moved away taking a seat on one of the chairs next to the dining table. “I’ll eat some too, then,” he said.

Kaidan turned the stove off and extracted two plates from the drawer placing them on the table, then he took the pan from the stove and started to dish the mix of meat and something green and ragout-looking to the plates.

Several long minutes they ate in absolute silence, neither of them seemed to have any appetite. Shepard waited for Kaidan to say anything, but the biotic was quiet, keeping his eyes on the plate.

Shepard could see that something was bothering the other man, but he didn't want to bring it up. He didn't want to start talking about problems, because he wasn't even sure what he could say that wouldn't make their already turning cold evening even worse.

“I asked Hackett if he could pull you out from work for a couple of days, so you could join me on my assignment. I might need a biotic expertise there,” Shepard said instead.

“Let me guess, it was a ‘no’,” Kaidan smirked sarcastically. “Even if they didn't find us guilty of breaching the protocol by having a relationship*, they are going to frown on a married couple in the same squad.”

“Sort of,” Shepard shook his head. “Hackett said he could pull some strings, if the mission will turn out to be more serious than it looks. If we will promise to behave,” he added with a wink trying to lighten the mood.

It didn't really work, as Kaidan ignored it. "Will see," he replied instead.

It was very quiet in the apartment. Somewhere out the window leading to one of the very few non-central streets rebuilt in the past four months, Shepard could hear a lonely ground car passing by and disappearing somewhere beyond the commander's earsight.

“I will need a biotic on the mission anyway,” Shepard added after a moment. “Hackett told me to talk to you about it.”

“Yeah, I can send you one of my students,” Kaidan nodded.

“Ok,” Shepard agreed.

“Ok,” Kaidan repeated. To Shepard it looked like his husband wanted to say something else, but changed his mind.

The rest of the dinner they spent in silence. Shepard couldn't say that the whole business related conversation had been warm, but at least they'd had something to talk about. From there on, it just became awkward. Shepard waited to see if Kaidan was going to bring the topic of the child up, but he never did. Maybe it was for the best, but for some reasons, Shepard hoped he would do so.

After the dinner Kaidan silently took both of their dishes from the table placing them into the dishwasher. Shepard watched him without moving from his sitting spot.

Shepard never tore his gaze away from his husband, when Kaidan moved closer. He took Shepard by the hand and tugged him silently into the bedroom before starting to undress him, slowly, nearly methodically. He then pushed Shepard onto the bed, sliding over him, covering his neck and his torso with kisses. And the entire time, Shepard's eyes were on him.

Only when Kaidan’s nails dug into Shepard’s hips, the commander shut his eyes, swallowing hard. He tried to concentrate on the sensations, on the feeling of Kaidan’s skin under his fingertips, on the shift of the muscles under that skin and on the wet warmth of his tongue. In the end, it was exactly what Shepard though he needed, what he'd hoped for since he returned home.

From now on, Shepard didn’t want to open his eyes. He was afraid that it would make him lose concentration, turning his attention away from what they were doing, so he continued to simply touch, smell and sense. He felt strong hands lifting his hips, and Kaidan pushing into him, slowly filling him with careful, steady thrusts.

Kaidan let out a grunt, but it was not one of pleasure. Shepard felt him retreating and opened his eyes giving his lover a questioning look.

“I… I can’t,” Kaidan shook his head. “Not when both our minds are somewhere else.”

For a second Shepard wanted to argue, but then glanced down between their bodies, noticing his member laying limp on his stomach. “Shit,” he groaned in annoyance, “I'm sorry.”

Kaidan shifted away moving towards his side of the bed. “No, that's all my fault,” he admitted after a moment of silence.

“Ok, right,” Shepard nodded, "let's stop trying to find whose fault it is and just talk. Come on, spill it, what was the entire evening about?"

Kaidan turned his head and looked at Shepard, his eyes were filled with desperation. “John, what was I supposed to do seeing you with this kid? Tell you, that it was fine, that we could take her home and raise her as our own?" he asked, "It has been a little less than an hour since you met her.”

“Whoa! Kaidan,” Shepard raised his eyebrow. “I've never even… considered it.”

“Yeah, of course you didn't,” Kaidan replied with a sigh of disbelieve, “It was only my imagination playing tricks with my mind when I saw you embracing her, your eyes starting to shine. For the rest of the day, my heart was doing these weird flip-flops as the image was popping back into my mind: you, me and a child. You know… I,” He stumbled, half way through the sentence rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers.

Shepard's eyes widened in surprise, as he realized what Kaidan was talking about. And here he thought, that it was him who did something wrong which annoyed his husband so much.

Of course, he'd always knew that Kaidan was a romantic, even if the other man kept denying it, but Shepard had never actually thought about him wanting to raise a child together. He had never even thought about the possibility, considering they physically couldn't have children. “Kaidan, do you want us to... have a kid?” he asked, his voice unexpectedly gentle.

“I don’t know, John," Kaidan sighed, "I mean, when I was younger, I wanted it. You know would be nice to have someone who would bring you a glass of water when you won’t be able to lift it with your biotics anymore,” he chuckled, “but then... then I found you. Never expected to actually fall in love with a man. But I have never expected to survive the war either, so I haven't thought about it for a long time.”

“Hey,” Shepard smiled reaching for his husband’s face with his hand to pet Kaidan's cheek with his thumb, “if you want we can go back to the orphanage tomorrow. I asked Liara to check if she can find anything on the girl. And it’s Liara, so by tomorrow she will probably find everything. And if the girl has no-one, we could --” Shepard gulped, unable to finish the sentence, his heart starting to beat faster in his chest.

Kaidan started to chuckle nervously. “Heh, this is surreal,” he admitted, “but yeah, we could. Can’t see why not. And if Liara does find her parents, then I guess we could just be happy for the girl. And, well, think about alternatives.”

Shepard’s smile widened. Moving closer and wrapping his arms around Kaidan, he pressed his nose into the other man’s neck, inhaling the smell of his skin.

“Although, you’re an overgrown child yourself, you know?” Kaidan teased.

“Me?” Shepard faked a surprise. “I thought I was the living image of courage, heroism and valor,” he laughed.

“Yeah, right,” Kaidan laughed in response, snuggling closer to his husband. “Of course you are.”

***

Even a year after the war, there had been times when Shepard had nightmares. Lately, they started to fade away and weren’t as vivid as before. They also weren’t visiting the commander every single night. It helped a lot to finally be able to share the bed with Kaidan after he'd been released from the hospital. Being close to the other man seemed to ease his restless dreams. But sometimes even the warm embrace of his lover wasn’t enough.

_Shepard was standing in the middle of a field. Nothing was growing here, the land was abandoned and dry, like it hadn’t seen any rain for years, cold and empty. Shepard felt alone here, without a single living soul around._

_Shepard started to walk. He had no idea which way to go, but for some reason, something was pulling him away from this field, like there was something wrong about the place. His heart began to beat faster and faster with each step he made, the feeling of dread was overwhelming him. It felt like death, and the most frightening was the fact that it wasn’t his death, but someone else’s, someone whom Shepard cared for, even if he wasn't sure who it was._

_The field behind him started to burn, enveloped in a surreal blue fire, which reminded more of a biotic energy. Shepard started to run, but something was stopping him, like he was thrown into water, which was slowing his every move. In a moment he realized that there wasn’t enough air. Shepard started to choke, trying to fill his lungs, but couldn’t get them to work._

_The blue fire started to catch up with him, started to envelop him all, making him shiver in cold, making the world around go dark and too bright at the same time. Somewhere closer to the horizon Shepard could see a blue moon starting to rise._

“John… John!” _he heard on the corner of his mind, the voice distant but familiar._ “John, wake up!” _the voice appeared again, this time closer._

Shepard jerked awake in his bed covered in cold sweat. The blue fire was gone, and the chilling sensation was now replaced by warmth of another body, hovering over him. Shepard blinked several times trying to concentrate on the surroundings. He was lying in his bed, home, with his husband who now was looking him in the eyes trying to calm him down by rubbing one of Shepard’s cheeks with his thumb.

“A nightmare?” Kaidan asked concerned.

“Yeah,” Shepard nodded still trying to calm down from the dream.

“Huh, haven’t had those in nearly a month,” Kaidan sighed placing a soft kiss on Shepard’s lips.

It felt like Kaidan intended it to be brief, but Shepard leaned into the kiss, catching the other man’s lower lip between his, wrapping his arms around his neck and tugging him closer. Kaidan sighed into the kiss, giving Shepard an opening to slid his tongue into his husband’s mouth, tearing a quiet mewl out of Kaidan’s chest, before with nearly no effort or fight from the other man’s side, he turned them around, pushing Kaidan on his back and mounting on top of him.

“Need you,” Shepard whispered against Kaidan’s mouth.

“I’m here,” Kaidan replied. “I’m here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *According to most modern fraternization policies, soldiers can have a relationship. There is a number conditions for it, for example, they must not be capable to influencing each other's career, the relationship must not affecting their performance or the performance of the unit. The only problem was them being under the same chain of command. At the same time they were in different branches of the military force (a fleet officer and a ground marine). It becomes really confusing at times, but Mass Effect universe followed the real military structure loosely. It is also possible some of the policies changed in two hundred years.


	3. Chapter 3

Shepard's presence at the warehouse was nothing but a formality. He wasn’t a detective who was needed to solve a crime, he was a soldier. Still, in his years of service Shepard picked up a thing or two about putting clues together, and Hackett thought that looking around the place with his own eyes could be useful.

After his meeting with the admiral, Shepard stood near the landing pad behind headquarters. While waiting for his shuttle to arrive, he began scrolling through his datapad reading the information about the biotic recruit Kaidan was sending him.  Private Erika Neith, human, female, only twenty five years old, who had never received a promotion in ranks because of her age and very little experience. She joined the biotic training less than six month ago, but shown a great potential and enthusiasm.

Under the file with standard personal data, which Shepard only skimmed with his eyes, there was a small note from Kaidan: _‘no field experience, sometimes can be bold and even impudent, but she’s good. Also, be prepared to be asked to sign something for her. Knowing her, this something might be her breast, so try to ignore it. PS: Really, ignore it. Because if I’ll find out you signed her breast, I’ll get pissed.’_

Shepard raised his eyebrow reading the note. He wondered for a moment why would his husband send someone like her, but he trusted Kaidan’s opinion enough not to argue. If Kaidan was ready to close his eyes on unprofessional behavior of someone, that someone must've been really good.

Shepard sighed turning the tablet off and storing it into a backpack behind his shoulder. He checked the time on a large clock on one of the buildings of the compound, before looking around the almost empty landing area. It was ten minutes before his ride was supposed to show up and so far, he hadn't seen anyone who looked even remotely like the young private.

Shepard also knew that Hackett assigned a third person for the mission, but he’d never been informed who it was. It would’ve been a logical thing to assume the third person to be a freshman too, as it was a common practice to assign several inexperienced people under the command of a good leader on simple missions; it was considered a good training opportunity. At the same time, the admiral explained that the third person had been already debriefed about the investigation, which meant that whoever that person was, they had enough clearance to be informed about current operations.

That person wasn't here either.

Shepard pondered if for some reason he misheard the time of the scheduled pickup. He doubted it was the case, because the assignment details were received in a message, which he checked several times to make sure he was correct. There was a chance the message had stated the wrong time, but it was almost unbelievable, because HQ was famous for its precision.

Shepard started to worry that something happened.

“Loco!” he heard a familiar voice and turned his head.

Behind him, he saw the familiar bulky frame of James Vega, who appeared from the entrance of the waiting area at the edge of the landing zone. The moment he was spotted, Vega waved at Shepard and moved towards him in wide hurried steps.

"Holy shit," he grinned as he approached Shepard. He reached for the commander's offered hand in a greeting, gripping into it with so much force, that Shepard was surprised none of his bones cracked. "Ah, to hell with it," Vega shook his head, pulling Shepard by the arm until the commander stumbled forward into his embrace. Vega's other hand landed on Shepard's shoulder in three heavy pats. "I was told I was going to be transferred under someone else's command, but I had no idea it was going to be you."

"They didn’t tell me you were going to join either," Shepard replied pulling out from the other marine's arms.

“What now?” Vega grinned, “are we going to kick some Cerberus ass, like the good old times, or what?” he asked, his expression turning even more excited.

“I sincerely hope it’s going to be less dangerous,” Shepard shook his head, trying to be responsible. He doubted his own smirk was adding up with the message he tried to convey.

“Sure,” Vega shrugged, “anyway, should I signal the shuttle?”

“We are actually waiting for someone else,” Shepard shook his head.

“Someone?” Vega surprised, “by any chance, is it a hot blonde chick with big,” he made a round gesture over his chest, “curves, whom I saw in the waiting area?”

Shepard rolled his eyes. It was indeed James Vega, a man who’d been promoted twice in one year, a major* of the Alliance Navy and an N7 officer. And if everything Kaidan had informed him about this Erika was also true, it was going to be a one awkward trip. “Does she look like this?” Shepard asked pulling his datapad from the backpack and flashing it before Vega’s face to show him the profile picture.

“Yup, that's her,” Vega nodded.

Apparently the idea of standing next to the landing zone was a mistake, because if Vega hadn't spotted him, they could have waited for each-other for a very long time. Yet, Shepard couldn't find it in him to regret the decision, he was used to staying home for most of the time, and feeling real sun on his skin felt too good to miss the opportunity.

Together with the younger marine, Shepard returned to the waiting area, where he found Private Neith. The girl was sitting on one of the metal benches, reading something on her datapad. Shepard was certain that whatever it was, wasn’t the mission assignment information, because no-one could read mission assignments with a facial expression normal people were saving for their lovers.

The girl didn’t even notice the two of them approaching, as she was starring on the screen, nibbling on her thumb. Shepard really didn't want to look at whatever she was reading, but his eyes slid down on the datapad in her hand just for a second and that one glance was enough to accidentally spot the word _‘cock’_ among some funky dialogue.

He wondered, what was the chance the text was about birds.

Shepard cleared his throat. The girl jerked on the seat, pressing the datapad to her chest and looked up. Her eyes widened in almost comical manner, before she hurried to stand, saluting the commander.

“Commander Shepard, it’s an honor to meet you!” she announced with a wide smile.

“At ease, soldier,” Shepard nodded a little amused by her reaction. “Private Neith, I assume.”

“Yes, sir!” she replied cheerfully. “At your service!”

When Shepard asked her to follow, she did it without arguments or complaining, or even questions. Neither did she initiate any attempts of seducing, as Shepard worried she could. The commander wondered for a moment about Kaidan’s warning. To tell the truth, when the major mentioned ‘bold’ and ‘impudent’ he imagined someone like Jack, but Erika looked like a person who had a sense of respect and knew how to follow orders. Each person’s personal preferences for reading materials were their business.

Then Shepard heard a quiet click behind his back, as if someone was taking a picture. He quickly turned his head and saw Neith giving him an innocent look, while finishing pressing some buttons on her omni-tool. The orange device disappeared from view and she continued to walk, like nothing happened. Well, that was confusing.

They left the waiting area, and Shepard found himself yet again walking on sun-soaked concrete. The difference between the lighting in the waiting rooms and outside was so great, that it was making him squint his eyes, yet he didn't feel irritation over the discomfort.

Vega went ahead and sent a signal to the shuttle. “Ready for more surprises, Loco?” he grinned.

A blue Kodiak gracefully descended to the landing area, not further than several meters away from them, which made Shepard slightly nervous, as he knew a maneuver like that would take a very good shuttle pilot.

“Hey Esteban! Open up!” Vega started to knock on the shuttle door, before the Kodiak had even had a chance to fully descent.

Shepard couldn’t help but smile. He’d seen neither Vega, nor Cortez for over four months, when they attended to his wedding. And the time before that, was when they came to visit him in the hospital. Over a year ago.

Of course, they kept in touch with each other, sending mails from time to time, but it wasn’t often. The large amount of work after the war kept everyone busy. Everyone was trying to help as much as they could and there wasn’t enough time for social interactions.

Shepard hoped that one day, when the mess after the Reapers would be finally cleaned, they could see each-other more often. Maybe even go on a vacation together -- the whole team. But for now he had this; a small mission with a small reunion. A little thing which made him smile, made him happy, because he was finally able to see people who’d become to him as close as family.

***

The areas around the city center were occupied by a great amount of service transport, working on clearing the ground from the rubble for new construction projects. The traffic around those areas was really bad, but Cortez knew some shortcuts and ways around, so road to the destination didn't take more than twenty minutes, even if the warehouse was on the other side of Vancouver.

“So, Estaban?” Vega casually asked Cortez, as he stood next to the pilot seat, leaning on the frame separating two areas of the shuttle. “Haven’t thought about switching back to piloting something else? All this time and you're still a lieutenant.”

Cortez hummed thoughtfully not taking his eyes from the control panels in front of him, "it is where I needed the most right now. Plus, I'd grown to like the Kodiak while serving on the Normandy," he explained, "besides, it's only you, mister Vega, who receives promotions like candies," he added with a chuckle, "admit it, it's all because of your good looks, isn't it?"

Vega laughed almost coyly as if encouraging the compliment, and not for the first time, Shepard got an impression the two men were flirting with each-other. Yet, Shepard wasn't sure it was something more, but a quirk of their friendship.

"Nah, my looks are just a nice addition to my other talents," Vega said. He then turned to Shepard and added: "what about you and L2? Kinda sucks that the guy who saved the entire galaxy got nothing, but a lousy medal and several congratulations.”

“If you don’t recall, I spent the last year out of the game,” Shepard replied. “They don’t exactly give out ranks to people, while having no idea if they'd ever be able to return. And Kaidan’s division isn’t big enough to have a general commanding it.”

To tell the truth, Shepard didn’t mind it. His current rank allowed him enough freedom to follow through with what he considered to be right and it wasn't like he required a higher pay grade which would come with a promotion -- the pension he was receiving for the last year alone would’ve been enough to support both him and Kaidan. Shepard had no reason to complain.

“Not big, but with a great potential,” Shepard heard Neith’s voice. He almost forgot about the private as she’d spent most of the ride with her datapad. Now, she was sitting on the metal bench in the passenger section of the Kodiak with her arms crossed on her chest and a wide smile on her face. “Ugh, that was off the record conversation, wasn’t it?” she then added slightly bemused.

***

The warehouse was situated in a small area near an old port, with hoary buildings, which looked like they have been standing there since the end of the twenty-first century. Overall, the place seemed abandoned, but intact, not touched by the war like any other parts of Vancouver. It wasn’t surprising, considering that the Reapers had been intentionally aiming for the most inhabited areas of the city.

The building they came to investigate was surrounded by a yellow cordon and several alliance soldiers were patrolling the perimeter.

“I have no idea what we can find in here that hasn’t been found yet,” Vega sighed stretching and getting out of the Kodiak, following Shepard. “They really had to send us straight to Horizon.”

“Orders are orders,” Shepard replied, “plus, we need to supervise the work of the biotic,” he added nodding his head in Neith’s direction.

“Right,” Vega said sceptically as he offered Neith his hand attempting to help her get out of the shuttle. She didn’t even glance at the major, as she jumped out of the vehicle, paying zero attention to the offered hand. “Right,” Vega repeated.

Shepard inhaled the fresh air, which smelt faintly like salt and fish -- something he still couldn’t get used to, even after a year living so close to the English Bay. At the same time, the commander didn't consider the smell to be unpleasant. After over a year, he started to associate it with home, with the way Kaidan’s hair smelt after they were returning to their apartment from the beach, where water wasn’t salty enough to feel like sea, but enough to smell like it.

Shepard reached for his side, touching a pistol hanging on his hip, moving his thumb over its surface -- a gesture unintentional, but familiar, a habit he had even after such a long time. The place was checked several times and there wasn't anything dangerous here, so none of them wore armor, but the pistol was still there, just in case.

The three of them moved to the warehouse, receiving salutes from two guards on the entrance. Shepard saw the guards recognizing them, but they still asked for documents -- it was a standard protocol procedure, not even war heroes were allowed to ignore.

On the inside, the warehouse was mostly empty. There were some old rusted barrels, several old boats in the corner, covered with dirty canvas sheets, but altogether they didn’t occupy even a tenth of the premises. The floor was covered with an uncountable amount of debris, which was making crumbling noises every time they were making a step. The air smelt like urine and rot, as if something had died in here several months ago and was still decomposing in one of the far corners.

“God, I think I might throw up,” Neith said wiggling her nose.

“Come on,” Shepard sighed. It wasn't the worst thing he'd smelled in his life, but he had to agree with Neith, “the sooner we finish here, the sooner we can leave and no-one will have to suffer.”

With those words he approached several crates in the middle, trying to spot the one they came for. The Cerberus crate was standing out from the pile of mostly rusted boxes and barrels, as it was plain white and distinguishably new. It was burned slightly on the outside and more severely inside, like something exploded in it. The almost fully burned inner surface was also the reason the lab couldn’t scan it for the presence of tissues.

“If it were explosives, it sure was something our labs couldn't trace,” Vega said looking inside the crate.

The private came closer to the box. She extracted a single rubber glove from the pocket of her uniform and drew it on her hand, before leaning towards the crate, tracing its surface with a finger, concentration reading on her face.

“It does look like something a strong biotic could do,” she concluded pulling the glove off her hand and hiding it back into the pocket.

"Well, the lab gathered that much already," Vega shrugged.

Neith looked at the major sharply, but then smiled, "there was a reason they asked me to the scene," she said, “would you mind moving as far away as possible?” she asked. “I will scan the perimeter with my biotic field.”

“Is it even possible?” Shepard surprised. He was sure he knew almost everything about biotics, but scanning wasn’t something he was aware of to be possible.

“For me, yes. I’m not very capable of using biotics in combat, but this is something I discovered, I can do well,” Neith nodded. “Still, I will need you to step away.”

“Is it dangerous?” Vega inquired.

“No, not at all. Your biometric impulses will just be distracting," she said frowning. Her expression then changed into a strange mix of devious excitement as she continued to speak in a hurried manner: "I will be able to see every biotic power used by you or on you for the past day or two. And knowing that the commander is married to Major Alenko and the ways the biotics can be used for additional stimu --”

“Just stop there!” Shepard cut her off feeling a blush creeping up his neck. He tried to remain composed as he stepped as far away from the crates as the warehouse perimeter was allowing.

Vega followed him with a wide grin he wasn’t even trying to suppress, “I like her,” he whispered.

“She talks too much,” Shepard sighed, eyeing the private suspiciously. He still felt uncomfortable about her little outburst.

“Well, she had to explain why she was making a request to a commanding officer, hasn’t she?” Vega chuckled leaning on the metal wall of the building. “Although, you are right, I really didn’t need to know it.”

Shepard rubbed his temple with the pads of his fingers, watching Neith sit down on the dirty floor of the warehouse, the blue glow spreading around her like a nimbus. Through the floor, the glow spread to every surface of every crate and barrel several meters around her, until it almost enveloped the entire building.

Neith's posture was rigorous, her face covered with a thin layer of perspiration, as if whatever she was doing was taking a lot of energy and attention. At the same time, her features remained relaxed, and if not for the biotic field around her, she looked like she was meditating.

Thinking about it now, Shepard could perfectly see what his husband really meant by his description under the personal file, but he also understood why Kaidan sent her. He felt somewhat uncomfortable with the way she spoke about his personal life, but he knew he could work with it later if she was going to join his team.

Shepard remembered another friend he experienced similar feelings towards at the beginning – EDI, with her inability of distinguishing inapt commentaries. But in the end EDI had become a great friend, so Shepard was sure if he was going to work with Neith longer, he could develop a similar level of affection.

“Can I say something, which will not go into the report?” Vega sighed switching to a more serious tone.

“Are you assuming that everything you said before was protocol strict?” Shepard smirked.

“No… I mean,” Vega shook his head. “Don't get me wrong, I'm so up for a good dance, but I just can’t see why they needed our presence here. I understand they needed a biotic to check the place, and all of the missions which require human biotics go through Major Alenko now. I can understand they also required a presence of at least one person familiar with Cerberus. But we aren’t the only ones available. Hundreds of alliance soldiers fought Cerberus. Maybe not as much as we did, but enough to accompany her.”

Shepard hummed. He knew that acquiring a biotic assistance on a mission now required Kaidan’s approval. But it was mostly a paperwork procedure where the Alliance Headquarters was sending a request and Kaidan was simply signing it. It could have happened that this time his husband advised Shepard as a candidate to accompany his student, but Shepard was the first to be assigned on this mission.

“What are you implying?” Shepard asked.

“I’m implying that it feels like they didn’t tell us everything. Have you seen the vids from the surveillance cameras outside the facility?" Vega asked nodding at the exit.

Shepard knew what Vega was talking about. Hackett had shown him the footage during the first debriefing. It was grainy and covered only the areas around the storage compound, as the warehouse itself didn't have any surveillance. The video depicted bright blue flashes in a distance in one of the warehouse's windows. It was possible to see other movements in the window, perhaps even silhouettes of people, but they were too unclear to tell for sure.

"They say they have two main theories about the incident, but they lean on the gang fight one. They haven't  found a single trace of other blood, but the one of Cerberus agents," Vega continued.

Vega was right, there was nothing which could indicate a presence of other people. but the agents they found inside the building. Yet, it was also difficult to imagine them transporting a living person, or even a creature in a box.

Shepard's eyes moved from Neith to examine the container once again, "did you see the size of that thing?" he asked, "let's say they did smuggle some powerful biotic in it. Nothing short of a volus could get inside and even then it would be a tight fit."

“I don’t know,” Vega finally said, his eyes also focused on the container, “it's just smells fishy.”

“Perhaps,” Shepard agreed, "but it doesn't mean we should back off."

Vega didn't reply. He stood silently focusing on the center of the werehouse, his expression thoughtful.

Neith meanwhile, was still sitting on the floor. Her face was calm and emotionless. But then she jerked violently, bringing Shepard's attention back to herself, and opened her eyes. The commander could swear that for a second before the biotic field dropped, he saw dread panic crossing her features.

Without giving it too much thought he rushed to the girl. The moment he reached her however, she managed to calm down and look as if nothing had happened.

“You all right?” Shepard inquired.

“I’m fine, sir,” Neith smiled standing up from the floor. “And now I have some information we need to proceed with the mission.”

“What did you find?” Vega asked approaching.

“There have been six very powerful outbursts of biotic powers. One was concentrated in the area of the crate. Others happened all over the perimeter.”

“So, you can confirm that whatever was in the crate was alive and capable of using biotics?” Shepard redefined.

“Yes, sir,” Neith nodded. “I can also confirm the energies came from different sources. One of them was severely stronger than others.”

“So, basically, whatever was in the crate, got free and started to fight Cerberus troops, who could also use biotics,” Vega contemplated out loud, his intonation pensive.

“Yes, it seems logical,” Neith agreed. Her expression hardened then and Shepard could see fear returning to her eyes, “I don't think that it was a human. The energy bursted spontaneously, and I didn’t feel it being modified by an amplifier. An outburst like this can happen to a human," she said casting her eyes down, "but not with so much energy involved."

“That’s some impressive work, private,” Shepard smiled, placing his hand on Neith’s shoulder.

“Thank you, sir,” she smiled, but that smile seemed too forced to be real, “do you think we can leave now? It still smells like a dump in here,” she asked.

“Oh, I couldn’t agree more on that,” Vega said. He looked at Shepard and after receiving an approving nod from the commander, turned around and started to walk towards the exit.

Shepard turned his attention to the private, intending to ask if she really was alright, but before he could do it, Neith shook her head and followed Vega outside. It was easy to tell something bothered her, but it also seemed the girl didn't want to talk about, so Shepard didn't push.

He gave the place the final sweep with his eyes and moved toward the exit himself. However, before he was about to step outside, something glinted from the floor, attracting his attention. The commander stepped closer to the source and noticed a very small metal piece laying on the ground. It was mostly buried under the dirt and it was nearly impossible to spot, if not by accident. Shepard picked a small stick from the ground and moved the object from under its cover.

It was a small round dog-tag. It was plain and flat, with nothing but _‘B.F. 07’_ graved on it. The dog-tag was attached to a very short and thin metal chain. Commander reached for the pocked on the side of his uniform, extracting a small plastic bag and placing his finding in it. If he was lucky it could be connected to the mission and help to give them at least some clues to work with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * According to both modern US and Canadian ranking system, major is an army rank and not naval and is equal to lieutenant-commander. In the codex it was explained, that with space travel, the ranking systems merged and instead of the army, Alliance had a branch of 'ground marines', but major still should not be equal to a navy captain. It doesn't make sense. A lieutenant-commander can not be given a frigate-class ship either, so Shepard should have been promoted to commander once he became the commanding officer on the Normandy. Long story short, I understand a major to be an equal to a commander, but from a different branch.


	4. Chapter 4

The sun had only started to rise above the horizon when Shepard woke up, feeling the warmth of another body pressed to him. It had never stopped to amuse the commander how much Kaidan liked to cuddle and snuggle. Even while asleep, he had always been finding ways to wrap himself around Shepard. But Shepard would be lying to say he didn’t like it.

The commander slipped out from under his husband’s arm, laying across his torso, before settling on the side of the bed, stretching. Kaidan turned to the other side with a quiet grunt, but didn’t wake up. Instead, he found his own pillow, rolled to the middle of the bed, snuggling to it the way he had been snuggling to Shepard less than a moment ago.

The little act made the commander smile.

Shepard looked at the clock. It was five in the morning, exactly an hour before he had planned to wake. For a moment Shepard considered returning to bed and sleep some more, or maybe even wake Kaidan up to find something better to do with the extra hour.

Shepard looked at his husband, at the small raises and falls of his chest, at his cheek covered with stubble, which still had a mark from a crease of the pillow it was pressed against, his full lips parted and pouted.

It was somewhat unreal that the two of them had been together for over a year. Shepard had never managed to get used to it fully. He couldn’t get used to the warmth of Kaidan’s body next to his as they slept, his kisses on the commander’s cheek every time Kaidan was returning from work, his warm breath against Shepard’s skin as they sat on a couch in the living room, watching movies. It was impossible to get tired of it.

Shepard sighed and stood up from the bed picking the pair of sweats from the floor and heading to the kitchen to make coffee. Yes, the idea of waking Kaidan was tempting, but he still didn’t have the heart to do so in that early hour.

This day was going to be a long one. First, Shepard would have to head to the Alliance Headquarters to talk to Hackett about assigning Kaidan to his squad. Shepard still wasn’t sure it was going to work, even if Hackett promised to take a look at the commander's request. He was going to try anyway, because returning on a mission was exciting, but returning on a mission in outer space with Kaidan was even better.

After the trip to the headquarters, Shepard had other plans, which were making him excited, but for different reasons. Last night he received a call from Liara, who informed him she couldn’t find any leads on the little girl’s parents or relatives. The kid was an orphan and it meant he and Kaidan could actually start the adoption process.

Shepard’s stomach suddenly started to swell at the thought. And it wasn’t because of the excitement, but something more similar to nervousness. Would they be able to take care of a child? Would Shepard become a good father?

Shepard knew that his current work with the Alliance was temporary, that as soon as he returned from Horizon, he would probably be assigned with something requiring more sitting and paperwork, maybe even some planning too. He should have enough free time to take care of a child, plus Kaidan could get some time off, to figure things out.

On another hand, their current assignment could take longer than the adoption process. That would be a terrible start being a father, if Shepard wouldn't be able to even show up the day they are supposed to come and take the child home.

At the beginning, they were also afraid that the girl had development problems, as she didn’t talk to anyone. Yesterday they received the results of medical exams from the orphanage, which were extremely difficult to perform, as the girl also turned to have a case of Iatrophobia -- the fear of doctors and medical equipment. The child’s brain worked perfectly fine and she didn’t have any problems with health or development whatsoever, so the fact that she wasn’t talking was probably connected with temporal psychological trauma -- something unpleasant considering her age, but fixable.

Another news they'd received from the medical exams was the discovery that the girl had been exposed to eezo. Right now she wasn’t showing any signs of biotics, like any other child her age, but there was a good chance for it to happen later. With a soft smile, Shepard recollected the priceless look on Kaidan’s face when he found out about their kid having biotic potential.

Shepard had already made fresh coffee and now was sitting in the kitchen drinking it, a datapad in his hand. He was reading his own report to Hackett describing the reasons why he would need Kaidan on the mission for the fourth time, when he heard the shower starting.

He pondered how long Kaidan was going to take in the shower, because he planned to have one before leaving too. He also wanted to scroll through his report one more time in case he could rephrase something to make it sound more convincing, but realized his mind could not concentrate on the lines. Somehow the running water in the bathroom was destructing him.

Shepard shook his head and stood from the chair, slipping out of the sweats midway to the bedroom, the coffee and the report completely forgotten.

***

Shepard tried to suppress a yawn, as he rode the elevator to the Hackett’s office but failed. Why did his body decide to wake up so much earlier that he supposed to, he didn’t really know. At least he had time to make a decent breakfast for himself and Kaidan.

Two hours later, his brain decided that he had to sleep more, and started to shut down even after two cups of coffee he had had earlier.

It was unlike him, really. At least not like him the way he used to be over a year ago, when he could sometimes sleep only three or four hours a night and still being able to perform on a battlefield. But Shepard suspected it was the stress and a strong wish to live, which kept him up during the Reaper invasion.

Shepard shook his head trying to will his sleepiness away, as he really had some important things to discuss with Hackett and it would be really inappropriate to yawn in the admiral's presence. Thinking about the inappropriate, Shepard's mouth opened yet again without any consent from the commander's side, making him swear under his breath.

The elevator reached the top floor and the door opened with a chime, which sounded loud enough to be annoying and not enough to wake the commander up. Shepard stepped out of the elevator and activated his omni-tool to check the time. He was twenty minutes early. He scanned the area with his eyes in an attempt to spot a coffee vending machine, like the ones he saw on the first floor but, as expected, there were none.

Shepard checked the time again, thinking about returning to the lower floors, but the door on the other side of the corridor opened, revealing the admiral standing there and looking at him. Sheppard approached, saluting as he did.

“My apologies, sir, I didn’t expect to come this early,” he said.

“It’s all right, you can come in now,” Hackett nodded inviting him into his office. “I could've actually briefed you on the omni-link, but looks like even our highly secured lines are not that secure,” he explained when both of them were inside.

“What do you mean, sir?” Shepard inquired.

“Right now it’s not officially confirmed, but looks like someone shady got a good grip on our channels. Nothing important had leaked, but we still need to be cautious,” the admiral explained offering Shepard a seat and proceeded to his own chair.

“Someone Shady? You mean Cerberus?” Shepard guessed, the agitation clear in his voice.

“No, I mean someone else. We had found several bugs among our equipment several days ago," Hackett sighed looking around the office room, then placed his elbows on the table surface, bringing his joined fists to his chin, his eyes locked on Shepard, ”have you heard any news about the Shadow Broker's activities lately?" he asked after a small pause.

Shepard felt his heart skipping a beat. Hackett just accused Liara in bugging headquarters and he wondered if it was really her who did it. There was all sort of information Liara could need from the Alliance, but bugs were not her usual style.

Shepard’s face had probably changed while he thought about it, attracting Hackett’s attention as the next thing the admiral asked was: “Do you know anything about it?”

“No, sir," Shepard shook his head, lowering his voice, "do you think it was the Shadow Broker who did it?"

Both of them perfectly knew about the Shadow Broker's identity, but it was an unspoken agreement to not mention it out loud, because if the rest of the world would find out about Liara, someone for sure would like to either eliminate her or demand to charge her for the crimes she hadn't committed. The Council would have to imprison her to maintain their authority, even if they used her services themselves in the past. To say it would be unfair, considering Liara's help with the Crucible and the war effort in general, was a serious understatement.

Hackett gave the commander an appraising glance, but didn't say anything else on the topic. “Why don’t we proceed with the actual matters then?” he proposed instead. “As I understand, you wanted me to assign Major Alenko, who is listed in our database as Major Shepard-Alenko and who is also listed as your marital partner, on the upcoming mission with you?” he asked.

Hackett managed to elude their relationship twice in the same sentence. It was a really bad sign.

“Yes, sir," Shepard confirmed, "I assume you have already received the letter explaining my reasons.”

“Indeed, I have,” Hackett nodded. “Although, the affairs between married people are not considered as fraternization, the general attitude to personal relationships between individuals serving in the same military unit, even if they belong to separate divisions, is highly negative, as it may affect battlefield performance and professional judgment.” Shepard felt like Hackett was simply quoting lines from the book. The admiral’s face stayed nearly emotionless the entire time, his eyes never moved away from Shepard. “Still, I had promised to look into it in a case the mission will turn to be more serious, than we anticipated, but so far there was nothing to indicate this is crucial enough.”

“The mission is connected to Cerberus. I hope you do understand that the chance of it turning out more serious than we’re anticipating is high. Plus, based on my own experience, my relationship with Kaidan has never affected my judgment or battlefield performance.” Shepard pushed, trying to keep his voice even, "and it’s been proven in the trial three months ago."

The entire ordeal of having a trial was a little absurd, and not even for the fact they had to have it, but because the committee had been turning a blind eye on their relationship, until a month after the wedding.

The committee was aware they lived together and neither Shepard, nor Kaidan kept their involvement a secret. They did extensive research on the matter and, while there were several gray spots in the fraternization policies which could've been turned against them, they also knew no prosecutor was going to take the case.

Being with Kaidan openly, without anyone trying to shove protocols under his nose, was the only perk of being a galactic hero Shepard had truly hoped for.

Yet, a month after they married, the committee suddenly remembered about their existence. The entire trial was nothing but a joke. It included separate statements from both of them, after which they were sent home and contacted a month later, informing them they were found innocent of all the charges.

“I understand a lot of things, Commander," the admiral nodded, "but I also want you to know I'm not the one who decides those matters. Besides, the fact you even had the trial will make it more difficult to convince the committee, unless there will be any proof of real danger. For all we know it can be some thugs pretending to be Cerberus agents.”

It was a little over the top, but Shepard understood the committee's reason. After the entire galaxy was left in discord, they needed to find ways to show they still held enough authority. If demonstrating that even Shepard could not escape consequences of his actions would do the trick, they used the opportunity to the best of their ability. If it meant sending him and Kaidan for a trial, or not allowing them to serve in the same unit without 'special circumstances', it was what they did.

“I understand it, sir," Shepard finally sighed. Still, there was something in the situation bothering Shepard, something Vega had mentioned when they were investigating the warehouse, "I need to ask, sir, if it was a simple operation of thugs sneaking in contraband, would it require my and Major Vega’s assistance?” He inquired.

“Shepard,” Hackett sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “You've always been one of the best soldiers I have ever had a pleasure knowing. The best, even, considering what you've managed to pull off. However, with your current medical condition, the Alliance doesn’t consider you as such any longer. Please, forgive me if I’m being too blunt right now. Don’t take it personally either, but your assistance on the mission isn’t valued as high as you assume."

Shepard felt like a bag of bricks fell onto his head. Of course he understood the admiral’s reasons, but at the same time, it was a serious blow to his feelings and self-esteem.

“I… I understand, sir,” he managed in the end.

“Good. But please, don’t start thinking too low about yourself either. Your knowledge on the topic and military experience are still valuable for the operation. That is why it has been decided to assign you with command of a starship at the first place.”

“Thank you, sir,” Shepard nodded. “I request the information about the starship be forwarded to me.”

“It has been done already. I ordered it to be forwarded the moment you entered the building – the short range data sharing is still considered secure. The departure is tomorrow at eighteen hundred Pacific time. Good luck, Commander.”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Shepard stood from the chair and saluted, before turning and exiting the room.

***

Shepard had to suppress an urge to emit inappropriate noises, when he turned his datapad on to read the forwarded information about the ship he was assigned to. Thankfully, he managed to remain silent, as he was in the middle of Alliance headquarters’ cafeteria sipping from a cup of black coffee. He still felt tired when he returned to the first floor, but one glance at his datapad jolted him wide awake.

Shepard looked through the first line, reading the name of the ship several times, just in case he'd read it wrong, but re-reading the line didn’t change anything. _Normandy_. His ship. He was assigned as commanding officer to the _Normandy_. Shepard scanned the crew list with his eyes, happy to see so many familiar names still on board. It felt great, felt too good to be real. He even considered pinching himself just to check if he was dreaming. Although, considering most of his dreams were still mostly weird and nightmarish, this probably was reality.

The only thing which could make his day better, was if Kaidan could go with him, but no matter how much Shepard wanted it, he couldn’t change Hackett's decision yet. Shepard felt like he was betraying his husband somehow by leaving him behind for a week, knowing that Kaidan would like to return to the _Normandy_ as much as Shepard.

“Mind if I join you, Commander, sir?” He heard a female voice from his left side.

Shepard turned his head looking up and spotted Private Neith standing next to his table with a tray in her hands and a wide smile across her face. At the same time, her posture looked tense, like she wasn’t sure how to behave in a situation like this, unsure how she was supposed to speak to her commanding officer in this situation.

“Sure, suite yourself,” he nodded. “What are you doing here?” he asked then realizing that Neith was supposed to be in the other facility.

“They transferred me here few days ago, sir,” Neith explained settling on the opposite side of the table. “I need to finish some debriefings about service on a starship. The basic training supposed to last several months, but they are trying to cover everything before tomorrow evening. It is pretty crazy, actually.”

“First time off planet?” Shepard inquired.

“Yes, sir, it is really exciting. I feel like I’m going to actually do something with my life,” she smiled, but for some reason to Shepard her smile looked more sad than happy. It reminded him about her earlier behaviour at the warehouse, where she was also upset about something.

He placed his cup on the table looking the girl in the eyes. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“No, nothing is wrong, sir,” she shook her head, “it’s just… I’m not sure I’m even suppose to talk about it.”

“Well, Private, you are in my squad now, on my team. I can assure you that you can talk to me if there anything bothering you,” the commander smiled in approval.

Neith sighed, “It’s just... I wish my parents could see me now, I wish they could be proud of me.”

“Are they…” Shepard had never been sure how to talk on topics like this. It had always been difficult for him, even if everyone who knew him, considered him to be really good at reassuring people. “Did something happen to them?”

“No, they are fine,” she shook her head, “good in fact. At least that is what I heard from the extranet news -- they, umm, in a ship building business, so it was easy to find," she added hastily, gesturing vaguely over her head as if it could better demonstrate her point, "I haven’t talked to them in over nine years. We had, what you can call, a difficult relationship after my brother died.”

“Nine years is a lot of time. Have you ever considered calling them at least?” Shepard asked.

“I have. I really wanted to call them after the war, but I never found the courage. Maybe I will try to do it. But not right now, I really want to achieve something in my life first. Do something important,” she smiled looking somewhere to the right through the crowd with dreamy eyes. Shepard knew this kind of expression too well, he used to know so many people with whom he'd served, who had similar dreams. So many people were joining the Alliance because of similar reasons.

Shepard ran his eyes over her gentle features. Neith was a beautiful girl. Not the kind of beauty that was striking or vulgar -- she wasn’t anything even close to a face on a cover of a glamour magazine. It was beauty you had to take time to notice, to start to appreciate.

“Anyway, I think that’s enough talking about me,” she concluded.

“Anything else you want to talk about. The upcoming mission for example?” Shepard chuckled.

Neith’s eyes suddenly came to life, like they were lit with tiny sparkles. “Wait. You want to talk about mission? Like protocol level discussion, or more like a ‘enkindle this, criminal scum!’ kind of one?” She asked enthusiastically.

Shepard blinked, raising his eyebrows. _Did she just…_

The excitement Shepard could read in her features, disappeared as fast as it came. She covered her mouth with a hand, blushing in embarrassment, "I apologize, sir," she whispered through her hand, "it was very unprofessional of me."

“So, you like Blasto?” Shepard asked not even trying to hide his amusement.

The private blinked back at the commander before her eyes widened again and the first honest smile appeared on her face. “How did you...” she started to ask. “Wait, you’re saying that the great Commander Shepard watched Blasto?”

“All seven movies. Several times,” Shepard gave the private a challenging look. “What, I don’t look like a kind of guy who would enjoy something like that?”

“No, you'll need to prove it,” she laughed. “What is your favorite character?”

“Well, it would be easy to say Blasto, right?” Shepard grinned, “but I think I like Bubin more. He sort of balances Blasto’s personality, making him look on some things differently.”

“Oh my god!” Neith clasped her hands. “You’re the first person I’ve met outside of the extranet who agrees with me on that!”

Shepard grinned even wider, "plus, the actor who plays Blasto is kind of an ass," he confessed proudly.

The commander wasn’t sure how long they have been just sitting there talking, because of how easy it turned out be, like something natural, like they’ve known each other for a very long time. After what seemed like only several minutes, but was actually half an hour, Neith had to run for her training. Shepard wished her good luck and watched her head off towards the lifts.

Neith was a strange girl.  When she didn't look like she was about to cry, she spoke about things Shepard could not understand. Other times she spoke about something trivial but only in exclamations. Shepard laughed to himself, realizing she was going to fit right in with the rest of his team.


	5. Chapter 5

Shepard walked from the bedroom to the living room and back several times. He tried to pretend that he was getting ready for the appointment with the orphanage director and not simply pacing nervously. At least that was what he told to himself, because he suspected Kaidan wasn’t buying it.

“Did you really have to come to the bedroom to grab a clean pair of socks, just so you could leave them on a couch and return for another pair?” Kaidan chuckled, amused.

Shepard looked over his husband, appraising his casual appeal. By that time, Kaidan had managed to change from his uniform into plain blue jeans and a gray button-up shirt and even had time to place another layer of gel in his hair.

Shepard wished he could drag Kaidan into the shower and wash the gel away, because of how good his hair felt to the touch without it. Every time Shepard brought the idea up, Kaidan argued that without the gel his head looked like he stuck his finger in a light socket, as his biotics were generating too much static electricity. The more Kaidan talked about the static electricity, the more confident Shepard was Kaidan just didn’t like his hair curling.

“I didn’t…” Shepard tried to protest, but noticed that he in fact was holding a second pair of socks, instead of a clean undershirt he came here for. Huffing in frustration, he threw the socks back into the drawer and opened another one. “My mind is just somewhere else,” he admitted.

“I noticed,” Kaidan nodded, walking to his husband and placing a reassuring hand on Shepard’s bare shoulder. “Just stop overthinking it. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be easier than facing the Reapers.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Shepard agreed smiling at his husband. “Plus, Liara is going to be there, so we will have someone who really knows how to datamine and research documents.”

The night before, Shepard talked to Liara again, asking if she meet him at the orphanage in person and she agreed. Shepard was excited about the meeting, because he hadn't seen Liara in months even though she was only a few hours of flight away.

After the briefing with Admiral Hackett, Shepard had another reason to meet with her. He wanted to know if she bugged Alliance Headquarters. He doubted it, because on most occasions Liara worked directly with several members of admiralty board who, on a need to know basis, were informed about her identity.

It was an informal agreement, beneficial to the Alliance as they gained more control over the release of sensitive information plus getting access to a vast network of outside intelligence at the same time. If Liara decided to go behind everyone's back, she would betray their trust, putting herself in too much danger. She was simply too smart to be that careless.

“It is going to be great to see her again,” Kaidan smiled. “We could go somewhere tonight. Have a few drinks, you know.”

“Yeah, just not too late,” Shepard agreed, pulling the shirt over his head.

“Why not?” Kaidan asked, confused. “I don’t have to work tomorrow and you depart at six," he paused then, thinking. His hand returned on Shepard's shoulder, his index finger drawing an invisible pattern on the thin fabric of Shepard's shirt, "unless, you were planning to, you know,” he said giving his husband a seductive smirk, “because we are not going to see each-other for some time.”

“Ugh, well,” Shepard chuckled nervously, “about it… I think it’s not going to happen either.”

“Huh?” Kaidan raised an eyebrow.

“Your mom called, she is planning on coming over. She will probably stay overnight too, so…” Shepard explained as a matter of fact.

“Wait, what?” Kaidan surprised.

“Well, she called, I kind of mentioned our plans. She decided to come over to help and to bring a bunch of your old toys and whatnot. She was actually upset that we didn’t call her sooner.”

Kaidan blinked several times rubbing his neck, “she called you?” he asked.

“Well, you were at work,” Shepard shrugged his shoulders.

“You know, sometimes your friendship with my mother scares me,” Kaidan admitted shaking his head in defeat.

“Well, she gave me with your childhood pictures,” Shepard chuckled, now trying to find a pair of pants which weren’t too small for him. It wasn’t an easy task, considering he gained some extra weight during the past year. Not too much to be noticeable, but enough to have a couple of pants that felt way too tight on him.

“Exactly,” Kaidan pointed out with a smirk.

***

They arrived to the orphanage exactly an hour before their scheduled meeting with the director. Liara was waiting for them next to the entrance with her arms crossed over her chest. She looked tired as if she had worked non-stop for the past several months, but her face brightened immediately when she noticed a familiar car pulling into the parking lot in front of the shabby looking building. She weaved and approached the vehicle

“It is so great to see you two,” she smiled when the side door of the sky-car opened, revealing the figures of it's occupants. “I wish I could’ve visit you earlier,” she admitted.

Shepard smiled at his friend and silently gestured her to join them in the car. No matter how much he wanted to proceed with what they really came here for, he needed to discuss the accident at headquarters and it wasn't something they could talk about in public.

Liara looked confused, but she nodded and climbed inside, the door closed behind her the moment she was fully seated.

"It's good to see you too, Liara," Shepard smiled turning his torso in a way he had both her and Kaidan in his field of his vision.

"Is there something wrong?" Liara asked.

"No, not really," Shepard replied, "I just wanted you to explain to me one thing before we go any further," he said keeping his intonation detached, like he wasn't really interested.

"Anything," Liara nodded not even having to think about it. It was not only a reply on a simple question, it was also a declaration of unconditional trust.

“Did you plant bugs at Alliance HQ?” Shepard asked seriously. He hated being so straight-forward with his friend, but he needed the truth. That way he could find it out without Liara even needing to reply, he was going to see her reaction.

Liara’s eyes widened in surprise and confusion. She moved her gaze from Shepard to Kaidan as if looking for further explanation, but didn't find it. It wasn't the sort of information released to the public and judging by Kaidan's reaction, he wasn't aware of the situation. Shepard was probably breaking a rule or two by talking about it in his husband's presence, but he knew Kaidan could keep silent when it was needed.

“I don’t understand,” Lara shook her head, “what do you mean?”

That was answer enough for the commander. It meant that whoever installed the bugs, it wasn't her.

Cerberus was next on the list of the suspects, and according to their recent involvement with smuggling operations in Vancouver, it was logical to conclude they might have needed something from HQ. Unfortunately, Hackett didn't tell Shepard which files exactly were tried to being accessed, only that the hacking attempt was stopped in time to prevent any information from being leaked.

“Ok,” Shepard nodded, taking a deep breath. His fingers moved rub his chin, the simple mechanical motion helping him concentrate, “Ok,” he repeated. “It’s just… I talked to Hackett this morning. He informed me that they found several bugs, suspecting the Shadow Broker planted them.”

“Shepard,” Liara whispered looking away, “it is the first time I’m hearing about it. I have informers in the Alliance, and you know it, but for as long as I worked as the Shadow Broker, I did everything to help them, not to backstab.”

“I'm sorry, Liara,” Shepard whispered shaking his head. “I knew it couldn't be you, I simply needed to make sure.”

For a moment a dead silence hung in the air, which was only disturbed by the faint sounds of the street outside. It was a quiet part of the city and the only sound of heavy traffic reaching their ears, was coming from several streets away.  Yet, the place seemed alive even here, in between the city center and its suburbs where at least half of the buildings were leveled to the ground with nothing left of them, but metal struts and half-fallen walls, extending from the ground for many floors up.

There were people living here still, working constantly on cleaning the area of debris, their conversations mixed with the occasional cries of seagulls and crows in a constant monotone buzz. Among those sounds Shepard could hear children’s laughter coming from somewhere on the property of the orphanage. It sounded good. Really good, like the exact thing he fought for all this time.

“Anyway, we actually came here for different reasons,” Liara spoke again with a smile. “Quite different, even. I’m honestly happy for you two. Planning on getting a child must be exciting.”

“It is,” Shepard nodded. He fixed his gaze on Kaidan who looked back at him with so much comfort and love, that Shepard started to feel his initial fright and the lack of confidence disappear.

***

There were several concerns Shepard had about adopting. First of all, his flight off the planet was scheduled for tomorrow night. Hackett had assessed the situation, giving the commander one week for the completion of his mission. However, there was a possibility of the timeframes shifting, which even the admiral could not ignore.

Knowing Shepard's own luck and Cerberus involvement, it was possible the entire assignment could end up with him flying from planet to planet in a wild goose chase for the next six months, while simultaneously running away from forces they could not defeat conventionally.

Liara was the one who calmed Shepard, explaining that under normal circumstances the entire process of adoption could take anywhere between five to nine months, depending how fast the parents’ credentials could be proven. Plus, at least three months should pass after a child arrived at the orphanage before they could even start in case the child's biological relatives appear. Liara assured him that in their particular case, it was possible to cut the time of the process severely, but even then it could take up to two months for the all paperwork to be processed, so Shepard didn’t have to worry about not making it in time.

In general, everything looked good, great even.

The first shortcut they managed to go through was scheduling an appointment directly with the director of the orphanage, instead of going through social workers. Meetings with potential parents wasn't among the director's responsibilities, but after finding out who wanted to adopt, she made an exception.

Sarah Renmy, the director of the orphanage, was a middle age woman who looked more like a scientist or a doctor than someone who was taking care of kids. She was looking at the three of them from under the frame of small rectangular glasses, while wearing a white coat with a small name tag clipped to her chest pocket.

She invited them into her small and rather simple looking office. It was a clean room, but every piece of furniture was mismatched, like it was pulled from absolutely different places. It was old and worn, but at least it wasn't falling apart.

The office had several personal touches, like pictures of kids filling one of the walls to the point there wasn’t an empty spot left. There were also several pictures drawn by the kids and some of them even looked pretty good. To the commander all of those little details were telling more about the person working here, then a nearly unnoticeable diploma hanging in the darkest corner of the office.

“Ah, Mr. Shepard, Mr. Alenko, Doctor T’Soni. I’ve been expecting you,” the director smiled reaching to shake their hands.

Shepard almost missed her addressing him, as it was too strange to hear someone calling him anything but 'commander', “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Renmy,” he nodded, accepting her handshake.

“Not as good as it is to see you three,” she admitted with a smile, waving them to sit. The chairs in front of her desk were folding and looked more like they came from a garden set, but were surprisingly comfortable and served their purpose well enough, “so, I heard you decided to adopt a child," she said, "is there anything you're interested in particular? Age group, gender?"

Shepard shook his head, "no, we actually came to talk about the girl I brought here the day before yesterday," he said, "a Jane Doe with short hair, blue eyes. We were looking to adopt her."

The director locked her hands under her chin looking at the three of them apologetically. Yet, there was something else Shepard could see in her eyes, some sort of uncertainty, “I’m afraid you won’t be able to do it,” she said after a small pause.

“Why?” Kaidan surprised.

“You see, earlier this morning the girl’s father came and took her,” the director explained.

The words reached Shepard's ear and time seemed to stop around him. At some level he understood that the news should not have upset him, that instead of feeling so miserable and sorry for himself, he needed to be happy for a parent and a child reuniting in the midst of all the struggles the world was going through.

He hadn't even spent so much time with that girl, only a single evening, there was no reason to feel so attached to her and yet, he felt almost as a part of his world shattered in front of his eyes.

He felt a reassuring hand landing on his shoulder and turned to look at Kaidan who seemed almost as upset.

“This is impossible,” Liara said surprised. “Are you sure it was her father?”

“Well, we verified all his documentation: passports, birth certificate, pictures. I mean, I know that everything could have been theoretically fake, but he also gave us blood samples for a DNA test,” the director explained.

It was an extensive proof, Shepard could not disagree, but at the same time as he watched Mrs. Renmy, he saw her becoming even more uncertain by each minute. There was something wrong with the entire situation and Shepard needed to know what. “How did the girl react on seeing him?” He asked.

“It is difficult to say,” Mrs. Renmy shrugged her shoulders, “I can say she recognized the man, but she also had psychological trauma. She didn’t seem to trust anyone in general,” she replied.

"You didn't exactly answer my question," Shepard pushed, trying to keep blame away from his tone.

Mrs. Renmy's eyes met with the commander's. They held the gaze locked for merely a moment before she tore that connection and looked away, "she looked afraid of him," she said quietly, almost whispering.

"And just like that, you simply allowed him to take the girl?" Kaidan asked, his expression a hair away from scandalized.

Mrs. Renmy sighed looking at Kaidan with almost irritation, "would you like a tour in our merry facility?" she asked, "so you could see the conditions the poor kids are living in? The ruined buildings were not the only thing the war left us with, we are overflowing with children who lost their parents, who have nowhere else to go. The man who came for her had a home, had enough money to raise her properly."

"Unless of course, he abuses her or... even worse," Kaidan replied cringing in disgust.

"Alright, thats enough," Shepard interfered. "Arguing isn't going to take us anywhere," he said before turning to the director, “Could you give us the information about the man who took her?” he asked.

She slowly shook her head, looking anywhere but the three of them “I’m afraid, it would be against the rules,” she said.

“Sarah,” Shepard called out her name, making her look up again, “it is possible, you've made a mistake and I can see it in your eyes that you realize it. To the best of our abilities we did everything to find leads on the girl’s parents, but there were none. So, if there is any chance that he lied to you, one single chance, please, cooperate,” he pleaded.

Director Renmy appraised Shepard with a long thoughtful look. “You’re right,” she nodded after a small pause opening one of the drawers in her desk and starting to go through folders stacked in it, “I might get in trouble by giving you this file, but you’re right,” she said.


	6. Chapter 6

Liara was going through her third cup of coffee – a beverage habit she picked up on the _Normandy_. Her delicate looking fingers were wrapped around the mug absorbing the warmth radiating from it, her inhumanly big blue eyes moving in quick sniping motions over the text on the data-pad. It was almost comforting to see her working, her features still so very young and innocent even after everything she went through, everything she had become.

“Peter Dough,” she murmured blinking, “arrived three days ago in a shuttle from the colony on Feros to find his daughter who was kidnaped by his wife when they broke up. A teacher, with no criminal records. Perfect credibility.”

“Please, tell me that there is at least one ‘but’ in there… somewhere?” Kaidan sighed almost pleading. He was sitting on the opposite side of the table with a bottle of beer in his hand, which wasn’t even half-way empty.

“There is,” Liara confirmed with a nod. “A really big one, actually. Remember when I made a check up on everyone arriving to Vancouver two days ago?" she asked. "Well, I still have those files saved, and there is no Peter Dough in any of my lists. In fact, I tasked Glyph to find any information on this person in any of the databases I have an access to. There was not a single mention of Peter Dough anywhere, or at least no Peters matching the picture on the records we were provided with.”

“So, looks like our ‘father’ did not exist before this day,” Shepard concluded.

"This is not correct either," Liara shook her head. "Peter Dough did not exist before this day, but a man named Donovan Banet, who matches the picture, did."

“The man had to change his legal name to get a hold on the child?” Shepard hummed.

“There is something else on the file,” Liara informed showing the data-pad to Shepard and Kaidan. "Something you won’t like."

Shepard accepted the pad from Liara's hand and held it so both he and Kaidan could read through the information. What he saw there almost made his blood boil in anger. The profile was giving a picture of a man, who looked around forty five even if the date of his birth stated him to be ten years younger. The man was unhealthy thin with receding hair line.

What frustrated Shepard the most was the line that clearly stated the man's affiliation with a group which terrorized both the galaxy and Shepard personally for years. Donovan Banet had been working for Cerberus for a very long time, but some time ago, he disappeared off the grid entirely.

“Cerberus,” Shepard heard Kaidan speak in disbelief, "what do they need from this kid? I mean yeah, there are some creepy bastards in the galaxy, no arguments on that, and Cerberus is full of them, but going through that much trouble?”

“Perhaps, you’re looking on it from a wrong angle,” Liara proposed.

“What do you mean?” Shepard inquired.

“I mean that the girl appeared out of nowhere. I know that even with everything your government is doing to prevent situations like this, it still could have happened, they still could have missed one child wandering the streets,” she started to explain, “but what if she arrived here no more than several days ago?”

“But you said yourself, that you checked everyone arriving to Vancouver,” Kaidan pointed out.

“Everyone arriving the normal way,” Laira corrected. “What if, say, she has been smuggled in a container, sleeping?”

Shepard’s eyes widened as he realized what Liara was talking about. He stood from his chair in a quick motion, placing his hands on the table, leaning on it, “that’s one hell of a coincidence, even for me to meet a girl who theoretically ran away from Cerberus,” he said.

“But was it a coincidence?” Liara shook her head. “For what we know it could be a trap.”

Shepard glanced at Kaidan looking for support, but the facial expression of his husband told Shepard that Kaidan was absolutely on Liara’s side.

“It’s a child!” Shepard protested, hitting the table surface with his hand way harder than he intended. Liara’s mug nearly jumped from the table, falling over and spilling the rest of the coffee over her datapad. “I’m sorry,” Shepard sighed turning away, not entirely sure what had gotten into him. “It’s just… unreal,” he admitted.

Kaidan stood from his place and moved towards the kitchen counter to bring some towels to clean the mess. On his way back, he passed his husband and patted him on the shoulder in a gesture of reassurance.

“You said that the girl was a biotic,” Liara pointed out, leaning backwards and allowing Kaidan to wipe the spilled liquid. "Weren't the Cerberus agents killed with the biotics?"

“She doesn’t have an implant,” Kaidan reminded. “I can’t deny that it happens sometimes that humans, exposed to eezo can accidentally create small Mass Effect fields even without the implant, but there is no way an unimplanted human can be that powerful.”

It was a little like a weird combination of a broken phone game and the game of clue, where neither Liara, nor Kaidan were fully aware about the situation, but were doing their best to figure it out. Liara knew almost everything going on at the headquarters, but only on the surface, only what HQ decided to share with her, deeming it to be safe. Kaidan was supposed to know almost nothing, because officially he was not a part of the investigation, yet he was able to pick up facts on the flight and use them to his advantage.

To Shepard, on the other hand, the pieces were slowly starting to click together. The findings Private Neith made about the usage of unamplified biotics in the warehouse was now starting to make sense, yet he didn't want to draw any conclusions. He needed to know more.

Liara sighed turning her eyes back to her data-pads, but not really looking at anything in particular at the same time. “Then, what if,” she whispered, “what if she doesn’t need an implant?”

Kaidan stopped still on the place eyeing the asari with shock. “A first human biotic who doesn’t need an implant?” he managed finally.

“That would explain the Cerberus’ interest,” Liara proposed.

“It is still just a theory,” Shepard shook his head sighing, “we don’t have any proof.“

Everything they talked about matched up perfectly with what Shepard knew, but there were plenty other ways it could have happened. The two accidents could not be even connected.

The commander knew how a single kid could live unnoticed on the streets, knew that she could have not been alone, taken care of by someone older who would sneak out from hideouts finding food. This someone could have been caught so the girl had no other choice, but to go and try to find some food herself. And the guy who took her, well, as Kaidan stated, there were plenty creepy bastards in the galaxy and the fact he used to work for Cerberus didn’t mean he still worked for them.

No matter how hard Shepard tried to convince himself in the later, it wasn't working well.

The doorbell distracted Shepard from his thoughts. He wondered for a moment who would come here at the late hour, but then remembered his conversation with Mrs. Alenko. Shepard started to feel really bad, as neither him nor Kaidan remembered to call her back, forgot to notify about the change of plans. But on another hand, it was probably too late to call anyway as she was most likely in the middle of the flight from the other end of British-Columbia.

“We will figure it out,” Kaidan reassured in a soft voice, as he walked past his husband and disappeared from the kitchen.

“Shepard,” Liara called, when Kaidan was gone. “I’m sorry that it turned out to be like that. I understand that you wanted to protect her, but," she paused looking away as if she was trying to find the right word, "it is the best explanation we could come up with.”

“I know,” Shepard nodded. “I know.”

“Kaidan is right. We will figure everything out,” Liara encouraged smiling softly. “Meanwhile, I need to ask you something else.”

“What is it?” Shepard inquired.

“I need to ask you for the permission to join you on the _Normandy_. I want to assist you on this mission, want to help.”

The commander smiled hearing those words. “You have no idea how glad it would make me,” he replied.

***

Shepard stood before a large medical facility affiliated to headquarters. It was the same facility he'd been transferred to from London's central hospital after being stabilized. He knew the building well inside and out, having spent almost three months recovering from the injuries the war had left him with.

The building itself was one of the constructions which survived the war. Only one of it's top corners was missing and by the angle of the cut it was possible to follow the trajectory of a reaper beam fired on a research center next to to it.There was nothing but a fenced empty field on the place where the center used to be.

Going through the files provided by Admiral Hackett, Shepard could see many familiar names on the ship’s roster. The _Normandy_ still had the most of the crew intact, but the only member who wasn’t present and was a vital part of any operation at the same time, was a medical professional. Among the files, there was a list of medics the commander could have chosen from, but the only one he fully trusted wasn’t on that list.

Shepard stepped inside the building inhaling the familiar smell of cleanser and chlorine in the air. He had never considered the smell unpleasant, but recently, he began to associate it with pain, with the time he’d spent tied up in a medical cot , feeling helpless.

The general layout of the facility was also familiar to the commander.  A rather large hall he stepped in looked exactly as he remembered it over a year ago: same exact sterile space, with same exact furnishing and same exact workers, he knew by names. The visitors however  were different.

The medical staff knew him too. No-one tried to stop him as they ventured deeper into the facility, down the brightly lit corridor dedicated for offices, untill he reached the one he was looking for.

Prior to four days ago, Doctor Karin Chakwas used to be in charge of Shepard's physical recovery. She always took her responsibility seriously and even lately, when Shepard became perfectly able of move around without external help, she'd refused to let him off the hook and had been dragging him into the physical therapy sessions at least once a week.

With Shepard officially cleared for duty, it changed. Chakwas was no longer responsible for the health of someone light years away, but instead of being relieved to lose the load off her mind, the entire ordeal seemed to upset her.

The door to Chakwas' office was open. The doctor herself was sitting behind the desk, working on her personal terminal, and didn't seem to notice Shepard towering in front of the office entrance.

Seeing it, Shepard reached for the opened door and knocked, clearing his throat at the same time, "Doctor Chakwas," he called.

She raised her head and her working concentration changed into a smile, "Shepard," she said, "come on in."

"Working as hard, as usual I see," Shepard said walking inside the office. There was a chair in front of her table, and after a moment of consideration, he decided to take a seat -- the long several days and extensive amount of walking was putting too much pressure on his legs.

"That I am," Chakwas nodded, leaning on the backrest of her own chair, "Though, I don't remember you having a session of therapy today," she said, "I hope you didn’t come for the traditional brandy either, because in this case you will have to wait till the end of my working schedule.”

Chakwas' intonation was light, but Shepard noted that she also looked tense somehow, “you do know why I’m here,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “Although, I need to admit, it was a nice try.”

The smile disappeared from Chakwas’ features. “Shepard,” she started in a more serious tone, “you are right, I do know. I received a request from the HQ several days ago.”

“So what is the problem?” Shepard inquired. “I know that you want to return to the _Normandy_.”

Chakwas looked over the commander appraisingly, “if everything could be as I wanted, I would've returned on that ship months ago and it would be you left behind here, continuing your therapy until I deemed you fully recovered,” she said with a sigh, "I didn't even want to sign you off from my care, but going head to head with you and Hackett is an impossible task."

It had been over a year and both of them knew, that if Shepard was going to get any better, it wouldn't be a very big improvement from his current condition. In other words, Chakwas' statement was translating into never wanting Shepard to return to active duty. She also could provide all sorts of paperwork with personal recommendations against the idea, but in the end it was Shepard's own choice deciding the matter.

Shepard shrugged. He understood why she didn't want him back off world -- she cared about his well-being, but discussing his health wasn't why he was here to see her, "you could simply fulfill one of your wishes," he said, "return to the ship with me."

Chakwas shook her head, “the situation on Earth still isn’t that great,” she said, “There is a huge deficiency on good medics after the war. I have over fifty soldiers still under my care whom I can't leave and not to mention the standard variety of patients. Sometimes there can be moments when a person should decide between what they want to do and what they should do. You have been facing with those decisions for as long as I know you. For me,” Chakwas looked around the room, “this is one of those times.”

Shepard nodded understanding her reasons, “can you at least help me locate Doctor Michel?” he asked.

“I know that she was transferred to London," Chakwas replied, "I haven’t contacted her since then. But for what I can tell, she is in the same situation as I am.”

“Well, that’s unpleasant news,” Shepard sighed. “I have no idea what I’m going to do then.”

“Well, I still can help you," Chakwas smiled in a reassuring manner, "I know a very good doctor. She used to work at the HQ, but moved to the Citadel three years ago. From what I heard, their situation is better than on any other planet and it will be possible for you to recruit her.”

“Citadel? Is she there currently?” Shepard inquired.

“Yes,” Chakwas nodded, “I myself met her at Huerta, but I believe she works somewhere else right now. I can send a query to find out which hospital she currently stated at.”

Shepard could do nothing more but agree, “if this doctor at least half as good as you are,” he chuckled.

“Oh, don’t flatter me, Commander,” Chakwas weaved her hand brushing aside the compliment. “I’m just a one doctor, but,” she added then, “Doctor Sonars on the other hand is very talented. She wrote many articles about human biotics. She is going to be a great asset for your team.”

Shepard contemplated Chakwas’ words for a moment. He almost wanted to ask how well she was informed about his current mission advising a human biotic specialist, but decided against it. The hypothesis they came up with yesterday wasn’t shared with anyone, so there wasn’t any way Doctor Chakwas could know.

“All right,” Shepard nodded finally, “I was planning to visit the Citadel anyway, so might as well talk to her,” he agreed. “And for now," he added with a grin, "are you absolutely sure a single glass of that brandy would interfere with your work?”

***

The Kodiak was picking Shepard up at five from the apartment. At first the plan was to send a taxi to deliver the commander to the headquarters and there switch to the shuttle with his personal pilot, who would work with Shepard on the _Normandy_ afterwards, but as this personal pilot was also Shepard’s good friend, the plans were slightly altered.

The commander checked his bag at least five times, trying to be sure that he didn’t forget anything, but considering that it was Kaidan helping him to pack, the checks were probably unnecessary. It didn't stop him anyway.

Liara had to spend the night at their place, but left the apartment earlier that morning, explaining she had some business to finish and promising to be in time at the docking bay. Shepard suspected she left mostly because she wasn't  fully comfortable with interfering into their family affairs.

Mrs. Alenko was finishing the dinner in the kitchen, probably with intentions to feed Shepard until he wouldn’t be able to even move before the departure. “I’m perfectly familiar with what they are feeding you on those ships,” she said with determination. “I can’t let my son to go anywhere before I will be sure he’s well-fed.”

Mrs. Alenko was a petite woman who looked fairly young for her age and was extremely energetic. Placing her next to Kaidan, it was easy to see they were related even if she had some asian features Kaidan didn't inherit.

She leaned more on the side of being overprotective of her only child, but easily accepted Shepard into their family. The moment they had spoken for the first time, Shepard understood that it didn't happen because of his reputation. She saw a person in him who happened to be good enough for her son and not a legend coming alive from a news feed.

Mrs. Alenko turned to be good at providing moral support too. Last night, after Liara had excused herself and left to her room, the three of them just sat there for at least an hour talking. “I don’t know who could have taken her,” Kaidan’s mother had said last night, “and I’m not going to ask, as the look on your faces tells me that it’s classified. The only thing I know, that you are going to go and get this girl from wherever she is. Not because it is your duty, but because it is something that can make both of you happy.”

***

Shepard was able to see the _Normandy_ from afar, standing docked to a large parapet extended from the military docks over the Vancouver Harbour. She was surrounded by several other military vessels, but all of them looked bleak in comparison. She looked new, like she had just descended from the assembly line and hadn’t even been into any battles. Her blue and white sides were shimmering, reflecting rays of the slowly descending sun.

She looked perfect.

The Kodiak flew across the landing zone missing the point where it supposed to drop the commander, and approached the shuttle bay of the ship.

“Any particular reason we’re going through the cargo hold?” Shepard asked.

“EDI informed me about some minor troubles in the airlock,” Cortez replied. “Nothing serious,” he added quickly catching Shepard’s concerned look, “probably someone spilled coffee or something.”

“Well, there must have been a lot of coffee,” Shepard said humming.

Shepard waited Cortez to fully stop the shuttle before he opened the hatch door and stepped out from the Kodiak, finding himself on the familiar metal floors. It was surprisingly silent and empty. Every step Shepard made echoed from the walls of the ship's shuttle bay area.

Shepard expected to see at least some people working in here, but there were none. The second Kodiak stood separately in the other end of the room, the canvas sheet covering it was still not removed. The armory tables were clean of oil and every gun was carefully placed on the shelves above it. The armory lockers were powered up and blinking with faint orange lights, but the panels on the tables around them were dark, like no-one had come close to them for the last an hour. The commander looked up through the windows leading to the engineering section, but couldn’t see anyone there either.

It felt like the ship was abandoned.

“Something isn’t right,” Shepard whispered to Cortez who had already moved the Kodiak to its proper location and now followed the commander.

“I’m sure they are just being debriefed on the upper floors or something,” Cortez sighed. “I can contact them, if you would like me to.”

“No,” Shepard shook his head moving to the elevator. He wasn't sure what happened to his crew, but he didn't want to take any chances. If there was any problem, he wanted to have an element of surprise. “Stay close,” he ordered gesturing Cortez to follow behind.

The absence of the working personnel in the cargo hold made the commander worried. A hundred different scenarios crossed his mind, each one worse than the next. Even so close to headquarters, they could have been infiltrated. Someone could have snuck onto the ship taking everyone as hostages. Perhaps it could have been a trap for Shepard personally.

The CIC Deck was dark and quiet, like the entire ship was dead. The only sound the commander could hear was a faint noise of the engine humming quietly from the lower floor. Something definitely wasn’t right and Shepard was getting ready for the worst stepping carefully from the elevator, his gun ready in his hands.

Cortez maneuvered around him, placing his hand on the commander’s shoulder. “Relax,” he whispered with a chuckle. “I knew this was a bad idea.”

The lights suddenly turned on and a huge hologram over the galaxy map lit up greeting the commander back in flashy colorful letter. The entire crew was standing there, on the bridge, looking at the commander with a smile, before they all exploded in a wave of cheers.

“Commanding officer is on board,” EDI infirmed cheerfully, like she was eager to say it for a long time, “XO Vega stands relieved.”

Shepard felt a little awkward, standing in front of the still open elevator with the pistol in hands. He felt foolish for jumping to the worst conclusion and almost wanting to open fire on his crew. Shaking his head and chuckling quietly, he re-holstered his gun on the belt. “Wow, guys, thanks,” he said scratching his nape. He looked at the people gathered on the bridge and could not hold a smile. His initial worry aside, he found himself feeling honored by the greeting.

Yes, Shepard had a home and family with Kaidan, but here too was his home, his family and he was a lucky guy to have it all.

 


	7. Chapter 7

“So, Alenko started to bore you to death and you decided to run away and return to us?” Joker grinned moving his fingers over the glowing panels of the _Normandy_ controls in final preparation to the takeoff.

Shepard was standing from the right side of the pilot with his arms crossed on his chest, running his eyes over the panels watching the pilot work. He missed Joker. Hell, he even missed his warped sense of humor and dry, absolutely not funny jokes.

“Not even sure if I should go along with this and be punched by my husband if he ever finds out, or just punch you and pretend you’ve never said it,” Shepard replied with an obviously fake pretence of being serious.

“Whoa there, Commander,” Joker protested after a short laughter. “You need this face to be pretty to pilot the ship!”

“I can assure you, Jeff, that the visual appearance of your face will not affect your piloting skills,” EDI interfered.

“Well, great,” Joker sighed, “now my girlfriend is siding with you. Thank you, Commander. Thank you very much!”

It was great to see EDI too, great to know she managed to survive the blast from the Crucible. Seeing every reaper and geth ship deactivated, she came up with a theory about the energy released from the Crucible being a virus.  She hadn't had time to test that theory, but moments before the energy weave cough up with the ship, she powered herself down, cutting off any connection with the surrounding world.

Without the AI, the majority of the ship's systems went offline and their crash on a surface of a nearby planet wasn't a pleasant one, but in the end everyone came out in one piece, including EDI. After rebooting the AI core, she returned to be a full-fledged member of the ship’s crew.

“Always welcome,” Shepard replied trying not to grin. “Anyway, how have you been?”

“Ah, you know, things were pretty crazy, actually,” Joker admitted. “I thought that they would ground me. But turned out there’s been so much work after we fixed the Normandy: flying around the Sol system back and forward, transporting supplies to Pluto. Personally tested how long it takes to fly to the Exodus Cluster and back to Earth without the mass relays. Turns out, way longer than the extranet says.”

“It happened because we ran out of fuel and had to drift for several days until we found something which could suffice,” EDI explained.

“But anyway, now we are back to serious business,” Joker smiled. “Everyone is on board and we are ready to take off. Setting course to the Citadel.”

When they started to exit the dock, the ship reeled slightly, but after the take-off Shepard felt like they were simply standing on one place, even if he could see them moving through the cockpit window. It was a challenging task to perform, even accounting the inertial dampeners.

Joker was a great pilot and the _Normandy_ was a fine ship.

It took a relatively short period of time to open interstellar travel once again. Repairing the mass relays had become a priority as hundreds of united fleet battleships were left in the Sol system, unable to return to their homes* and the amount of provisions to sustain them was not unlimited.

The area around the Charon Relay was surrounded by several maintenance vessels checking over the relay work. There was still a shortage on element zero and sometimes they were powering it down, for now, while the expeditions were trying to find unexplored mineral veins, keeping an eye on the relay functions was vital.

“Pluto relay is in range, initiating the transition sequence,” Joker informed.

“Connection with the relay established. Calculating the transit mass and destination,” EDI picked up, “calculating the approach vector.”

It honestly was amusing how the two of them started to work in a synchrony, considering how much Joker used to hate the AI. Well, they really had made a great progress in their relationship since they met.

“Hitting the Relay in ten… nine…” Joker started the countdown,  “…three… two … one.”

The relay beam reached to the Normandy and the bright blue light enveloped the ship, pushing it forward. For a second everything turned white and Shepard’s body started to feel like it lost its gravitation point and the sense of direction. It was a usual experience of the relay jumps, but Shepard hadn’t done it for a while so it turned to be little more disorienting than he anticipated.

The next moment everything returned to normal.

“Ladies and gentlemen…  and Major Vega,” Joker announced cheerfully through the communicators, “our mass relay jump was successful, as usual. Every system is online, proceeding further to our destination.”

The clouds around the station were dense and it was difficult to see anything. Shepard leaned closer to the screens trying not to miss the moment he would be able to see the Citadel. Even considering how many times he had been here, Shepard still considered the view from the ship a breathtaking one. Especially now, when he wasn’t sure what to expect.

When Shepard heard about the Citadel being nearly fully reconstructed he still imagined it to look somewhat similar to Earth, with only main districts clean and fixed and most of the other parts still laying in ruins. In the end the Citadel took the hardest of the hits during the war.

When the station finally appeared in their view -- first a simple outline through the purple clouds of its atmosphere, then in the full splendor -- Shepard couldn’t believe his eyes. It looked almost exactly like he remembered it, with all five of its arms glowing in faint web of orange lights.

Shepard still could see some black spots here and there, could see the outline of a large crack in the middle of one of the wards and dozens of construction ships working on the outside perimeter of the station.  Yet, even with the amount of work still needed to be performed, it was really impressive how quick people had managed to put it back together.

“Here’s an example of persistence,” Joker whistled, “Some impressive work, isn’t it?”

“It sure is,” Shepard agreed in awe.

***

Although the Citadel looked almost as Shepard remembered it from space, it carried a different feeling seeing it up close. Besides the great amount of construction work all around the station, the general layouts of it were different. Now the alliance docking bay was much bigger than it used to be, even if in general there were less alliance ships docked. Next to the alliance docks, Shepard could see an official area dedicated for quarian ships, which did not exist previously.

Shepard had several reasons to come to the Citadel. First of all, Liara needed to transport some of her equipment to the ship, so she could continue her work at the same time as helping the commander. Doctor Chakwas had also sent him a lead on the medic she advised to ask for his team.

Only moments after the _Normandy_ docked, Shepard received a request from the council to appear at the Tower as soon as he had a chance.

The Council members, even after everything Shepard had done for them, weren't on his list of closest friends. He'd never had anything in particular against them, but their relationship had never moved from professional. That is why the commander highly doubted that their wish to see him was anything but a matter of business.

At the same time, the invitation came in handy. Shepard's Specter status was still withheld from him due to medical conditions, but if the Council had an official request, it meant they also had plans on reinstating him as one of their agents. No matter what kind of request they were going to make, having all of the advantages of being a Specter, could also be beneficial for Shepard's current mission.

Shepard checked the time on his omni-tool, trying to decide where to head first. The travel to the Citadel took ten earthen hours, and it was only four hundred hours Alliance Standard time. On the Citadel, it was still morning, but not quite so early. The commander knew that at this time the Council was the busiest, and as Liara could arrange the delivery of her belongings on her own, the only choice left for the commander was the hospital.

The clinic Doctor Sonars worked at was a strange little place. Having an entrance from both the Presidium and the lower wards, it was considered to be on the border between the two, even if geographically it was not possible. The strangeness of the place did not end on the hospital's position, because on top of that the little clinic carried the proud name of Jon Grissom.

Shepard knew, that naming facilities after the great heroes of the past was a popular practice and was done to remember about their accomplishments. Still, it was a strange choice, considering Grissom himself hadn't had any affiliations with medical facilities.

Shepard stepped into the hospital's lobby eyeing the insides of its white glassy interior. Even  at first glance, the place looked over the top with its large open spaces, after a moment Shepard realized that the interior was more practical and every piece of furniture was there on purpose. It was clean and neat, which made it look more like a small research center.

The personnel of the facility mostly consistent of humans, but there were also several salarian and turian staff members, passing in the main hall dressed in white coats.

“Uh, hello,” Shepard walked to the reception desk greeting a salarian receptionist. “I sent a request earlier today about talking to Doctor Amelia Sonars.”

The salarian looked up from his terminal, yet his fingers continued to tap over the panel as if he didn't need to look at the screen to type, “ah, Commander Shepard, I assume. It’s a big honor to meet you,” he smiled politely, speaking fast even for a member of his species, “and yes, Doctor Sonars is expecting you in her office. It is further down the hallway, door number 24E," he said, one of his hand pointing at one of the corridors leading from the main hall. His second hand continued to move swiftly over the holographic keyboard and the moment it was rejoined by the first, the salarian lost any kind of interest in their guest.

Shepard stood in front of the desk for another moment, until he realized he wasn't going to get any more information from the guy. He shrugged, thanked the salarian and proceeded towards the office he was directed to.

Doctor Sonars was a young woman, no older than thirty. She was wearing one of the medical lab coats on top of a pair of jeans and a thin polo-neck shirt with a small bronze colored pendant hanging from her neck. Her shoulder length chestnut hair was neatly gathered in a ponytail. In general, she had an air of a person who was taking a good care about appearance even while preferring very simple style in clothing.

When Shepard walked into her office, she turned her head and looked at the commander appraisingly, before simply turning back to her terminal, as if he was nothing but an empty spot, like if her door was opened by a gust of wind and no-one actually came inside the office.

“Excuse me, Doctor Sonars,” Shepard said, wondering is it was some sort of a weird tradition in that place to not mind any attention to the visitors, “my name is Shepard, am the commander of --”

“I know who you are,” she interrupted drily, “I received your mail.”

“So, you know why I am here, then?” Shepard asked even if the question was mostly rhetorical.

“I do,” she replied.

Shepard waited several moments for her to say anything else, but the doctor was silent, concentrating on the terminal screen. He was starting to became suspicious something was very wrong with the place, “so?” he tried tentatively.

“No,” she answered.

“No? Just like that?” the commander surprised.

“Just like that,” she nodded in agreement.

Another moment passed by. The stretching silence between them was starting to become cold and unpleasant. “Listen, Doctor Sonars. You just pushed me into a terrible situation,” Shepard said with a sigh. “I refused the help of several great doctors who wanted to join the Normandy, only because a friend of mine advised me to talk to you --”

“And who, I wonder, was this friend of yours?” she interrupted yet again, sounding offended and angry. A sarcastic smile appeared on her face.

“Uh, Doctor Chakwas...” Shepard replied raising his eyebrow.

The cold sarcastic smile disappeared from the woman’s features, turning into surprise and something Shepard could read as shame. “Oh,” she exhaled. “I thought… never mind,” she shook her head looking at Shepard appraisingly again, “I… I’m sorry to turn you down, Commander, but I really can’t go with you,” she said finally.

“Can’t?” Shepard surprised. “There must be a good reason for it.”

“Oh, there is,” the doctor replied with a smirk. “But it doesn’t really matter, so please, leave me be and find someone else.”

Shepard reached for the back of his head to scratch it. He was utterly confused by the doctor’s words and it didn’t look like she was going to give it up. The weirdest part in the situation was the feeling that Doctor Sonar’s cold attitude was aimed at him, like she had something against him personally. Shepard was pretty sure that he’d never met her before for this to happen.

“Doctor Sonars,” he tried again, “I would like to ask you to reconsider. I really trust Doctor Chakwas’ opinion and if you at least half as good as she described, I want you to be a part of my crew. I need you to be a part of my crew.”

“Huh, next you will tell that humanity needs me?” she laughed.

“Well, that was the plan,” Shepard smiled.

The doctor gave the commander an amused smile; Shepard decided that it was a start. “You’re an interesting person, Commander,” she said with a chuckle, lowering her gaze. “I can see why," she faltered for a second, "I can see why everyone likes you so much. But it is still a ‘no’.”

“Doctor Sonars. I’m really out of moves here. So I will just leave this data-pad with every bit of unclassified information about the _Normandy_ and the list of medical specialist’s duties on the ship,” Shepard proposed, “and if you will have a moment to take a look at, just to spare a glance, please do so.”

With those words he placed the datapad on the table in front of the doctor and turned to leave the office. On the corner of his eyes Shepard saw her reaching curiously for the device. He thought that maybe it wasn’t a lost case after all.

***

Shepard was about to head to the Citadel Tower when he was ambushed by two C-Sec officers. There was no other word to describe their appearance, because one moment Shepard's way was clear and the next the two of them stood in front of him, like materializing out of thin air. Both of them were turian, approximately the same build and height and according by their facial markings, were from the same colony of origin. They surrounded Shepard from both sides keeping their hands behind their backs.

“Commander Shepard?” said one of them.

“Yes, is there a problem, officers?” Shepard inquired.

“No, sir, we were sent here to accompany you to the C-Sec Academy,” the turian shook his head.

“Sent by whom?” Shepard asked.

“We were asked not to inform you, sir,” the turian said.

Shepard eyed the two turians with suspicion. He wondered who could want to see him in C-Sec. There were several people he knew there, Commander Bailey for example. But Bailey would surely send Shepard a mail asking to come by, instead of sending two armed guards. General Oraka used to work closely with C-Sec and could've asked for their assistance tracking the commander down, but he highly doubted that Oraka would go to such extremes.

“All right,” Shepard nodded. The entire situation seemed a little strange, but they were in a heavily populated area, with dozens of witnesses around. The academy itself wasn't far, Shepard could see its banners clearly from where he was standing. It was within walking distance.

The turians escorted him to the alley leading into the academy, but instead of going further down into the facility, they stopped before a small side street about sixty or seventy meters away from the main office compound.

“We were asked to inform you that you are to wait in there,” the officer who talked to Shepard before informed with a sigh. To Shepard it seemed that the turian didn’t like the idea either.

The commander looked at the side street. It was dark and a somewhat eerie, a faint smell of sewage coming from the direction the street was leading to. If Shepard was to walk there and it would turn to be a trap, he would be a goner for sure.

Shepard looked around, but didn't see anyone else in the vicinity -- it was the only corner on the territory of the academy hidden from any bystanders' eyes. He turned to look at the C-Sec officers, noting that each of them had two easily retractable pistols. Besides the pistols, it was impossible to know how many weapons they could have hidden from the commander’s sight.

The situation could really turn bad and fast. No-one could give the commander a guarantee that the turians were actually from C-Sec, and not disguised mercenaries. Shepard suspected that in his current condition he wouldn’t be able to fight both of them at the same time if they were to attack. He didn't want to test his strength against them either.

Shepard's mind started to race. He decided that the best he could do in the situation was to lose the turians, to move forward in a hope he would have a chance to send a distress call to the _Normandy_.

He nodded and started to walk towards the dark side-street, relieved to see the turian officers not following him. When he he was out of their sight, Shepard reached for his gun taking it into his hand and activating his omni-tool, sending a signal with his current location back to the ship.

Right now it was logical to simply stop and wait here, in the middle of the narrow passageway leading into whatever it was waiting for him ahead. It could at least buy him some time, before anyone would come to look for him.

He stopped, taking a deep breath. Waiting was the right thing to do, the safest one. He looked behind and saw only the distant light of the street leading to the academy. Before him he could barely distinguish the shapes of the walls and the floor. The curiosity and discomfort of fully relying on other people got the better of him. Holding his pistol ready, Shepard moved forward.

The narrow side street turned into a bigger opening which seemed even darker. There was some steam coming from a pipe attached to the wall, which Shepard did not see so much as felt on his skin. He made another step, listening to every sound around him and realized he was no longer alone.

Shepard's eyes started to adjust only now and the first thing he saw was a large humanoid silhouette on the other side of the opening. He pointed his gun at whoever was standing there, preparing for a fight. The figure meanwhile moved and Shepard noticed a single blue light coming from the direction of its face. A single, blue rectangular light.

“Really?” Shepard said letting out a breath and lowering his gun.

“And whom else did you expect to see here?” he heard a familiar turian voice.

“Oh, I don’t know, the list of people who want to see me dead is just so small,” Shepard said sarcastically, holstering his pistol back to the side and stepping closer to the figure. “Although, I've never suspected you to be on it, Garrus,” he added with a smile.

“Shepard,” the turian chuckled. “I would go for a hug, but you know, a dark lonesome place… I’m just afraid it would look like something else entirely.”

“And I would tell that it’s great to see you,” Shepard commented looking around the place, “But I still can’t see a thing.”

“I know,” Garrus said. “Sorry about this all conspiracy, I really needed to get to you without anyone on the Citadel knowing.”

“And that is why you asked the C-Sec guys to bring me here?” Shepard pointed out.

“They are friends. I’ve known them for a very long time and know that I can trust them. It was the only way,” the turian explained.

“What is going on, Garrus?” Shepard asked.

“I can’t really tell you anything right now,” Garrus said with a heavy sigh, “someone still might listen. But something bad is going on. Something nasty. Shepard, I need you to allow me the access to the _Normandy_. I can sneak in, you will come and talk to me later and I’ll explain everything.”

“That is not a problem, Garrus,” Shepard nodded. “You’re always welcome on my ship.”

The commander activated the omni-tool, flashing his friend’s face with the soft orange glow. The light wasn't bright enough to see Garrus fully, but now Shepard noticed his expression was more than worried. Shepard forwarded the pass to the ship to Garrus.

“Thank you, Shepard.” The turian said, nodding. “I will be on the ship in at least an hour – will have to take several longer routes. And it would be good if you appear even later. But please, we need to talk before you meet the Council.”

Shepard blinked, watching the shadow of his friend disappear further into the darkness, until he realized he was standing there alone. He had no idea what was going on, but it looked like his simple mission was now on hold by unexpected detours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The ending of ME3 has shown the ships FTL jumping away from Earth, but it was never shown them reaching the relay. The final battle scene in ME3 also showed every ship in the united fleet arriving into Sol system simultaneously, but the universe canon kept stating it was impossible during the rest of the trilogy. Only one ship could pass through a relay at a given period of time. For example in the Codex about the migrant fleet, it was stated that the fleet was so big, it was taking days to jump through one mass relay. Even if majority of the alien races ships managed reach the relay and jump home, I think a lot of them wouldn't have time.


	8. Chapter 8

On the way back towards the ship, Shepard decided to take a rout through the wards, walking into areas prioritized the least in the reconstruction efforts. The rubble around the place was cleared, but overall it didn't look much better than most of the bigger cities back on Earth.

Dozens of buildings stood in the area abandoned by their inhabitants. Their darkened windows were covered in plastic sheets. The majority of the shops and kiosks were closed, and the open ones were distributing rations and clothes, or any other kind of essential goods for prices too high for something that simple.

The only thing that never really changed was the rows of commercial ads all over the place. Most of them were advertising merchandises which wasn't even possible to find anymore. Shepard suspected, that the majority of them were added here only to cover the holes on the walls, to make the place at least look decent.

A keeper crossed the commander’s path carrying a piece of metal plank around twice its size, leaving the commander surprised how easy it looked to carry that weight for the creature. It reminded the commander of ants with their ability of lifting heavy things.

The keeper dropped the metal plank near a neat stack of other planks and turned its attention to the commander, walking to him and looking the man in the eyes. It reached to the commander with one of its arms, offering something it held.

“What is it?” Shepard surprised. It was unusual for the creatures to pay attention to anything but their work.

Shepard reached for the object extracting it from the keeper’s hand. It looked like an old radio communicator, but by the look of it wasn’t functional, cracked in half, like someone stepped on it. “Thanks, I guess…” Shepard said to the keeper. The creature made a weird quiet noise reminding him of the sound of binary code and turned to walk away.

The next keeper was encountered merely a hundred meters away from the first. This time the creature brought Shepard a piece of what seemed to be a sunglass lens.

When the commander finally reached the _Normandy_ he had gathered about a dozen unexpected keeper ‘gifts’. After the first three he had tried to ignore the rest, but the keepers simply had continued following the commander until he accepted all of the things they brought. All of it was nothing but trash: nonfunctional scraps of devices Shepard had a hard time to even understand what they were, pieces of glass, empty cred chits, even an actual metal coin which was probably hundred of years old as no-one used physical currency for quite some time.

The commander had no idea why the keepers began to take notice him and he was fairly sure no-one would ever find the answer as studying the creatures hadn't become easier since it was last attempted.

Shepard found Garrus in Liara’s quarters, in a middle of an argument with the asari. Neither of them sounded angry, but it still made Sheared concerned.

“I can assure you that those numbers are correct,” Liara sighed sounding slightly frustrated.

“How can you be so sure?” Garrus protested. “It is very different from the information I was able to find.”

“And, I wonder, where exactly did you find it?” Liara hummed. “Why are you so sure that you can trust your source?”

“And you are sure you can trust yours?” Garrus pushed.

“Well, my sources had never misled me,” Liara pointed out.

Shepard stepped into the quarters, moving his eyes from one of his friends to another, “All right, you two, what are you arguing about?” he interfered.

“Ah, good timing, Shepard!” Garrus greeted. “Here, take a look.”

With those words Garrus offered the commander a data-pad. Shepard took the pad from the turian’s hand and looked through the information. It seemed to be some sort of price estimates on a list of resources. The only thing Shepard could see that the numbers in credits in each column were really high.

“Umm, Garrus. I’m not exactly an accountant,” Shepard raised an eyebrow looking at his friend. “What is it?”

“It’s the amount of money and resources donated to the Citadel reconstruction program,” Garrus explained.

Having more understanding of what he was looking at, Shepard returned his attention back to the pad, skimming through the list again. The record was long, containing information on received amounts of raw materials and ready-to-use parts, together with donated credits and offered help in manpower. It was in fact a lot of money, but considering the scale of work done, it wasn't surprising.

“Awful a lot of zeros,” Shepard nodded. “But the Citadel is the core of the Mass Relay network. Every species in the galaxy participated in the reconstruction.”

“But it is surprising that the amount of money on this record is almost two times higher than in the official documentation,” Garrus explained. “Why would the Council hide something like this?”

“We don’t have any proof that this documentation is credible,” Liara added. “Everything I received from my sources is validating the official estimations.”

“Where exactly did you find this?” Shepard asked addressing the turian.

“One person in C-Sec found it digging through his channels,” Garrus explained with a sigh. Shepard knew the turian well and according to the way he sighed and turned his head slightly to the right was telling him that Garrus was slightly uncomfortable. “Even if I wouldn’t know him, I would still consider it as valid information, because no way the Citadel would have been rebuilt so quickly with the amount of resources shown in the official documents.”

Shepard placed the datapad on the table next to Liara leaning on one of the walls. “Another question then,” he nodded, “even if there is a contrivance with the funds, how does this even concern us?” he asked.

Garrus sighed rubbing his nose. “It’s… it is my father,” he finally sighed. “The person who found that. He thinks that he might be onto something really big and I promised to help.”

The admission seemed to be difficult for Garrus, almost like he didn't want to mention his father at all. At the same time, Shepard realized how important it was for his friend to fulfill the task. He and his father used to waste every hour in arguments, until finally, they stopped talking to each-other altogether. Only a few months before the war with the Reapers started, they managed to find a way to slowly start rekindling their relationship.

Yet, Shepard had no idea how he would be able to help his friend.

“All right,” Shepard nodded. “You know me, Garrus. I would never walk away from a person in need, especially my friend. But what can I do? Confront the Council and demand the truth? Do you think they would tell me?”

“I understand,” Garrus nodded. “And I also understand that what I’m about to ask might seem too much, but I need your help on this one. There is a program, which could hack the Council terminals. All that is needed to be done is install it and my father will be able to gain full access to all their databases,” the turian explained.

“Do you know what level of security those terminals have?” Liara surprised. “Where did you even get this program?”

“My father got it. I’m not sure where,” Garrus admitted. “But it is safe. I asked Tali to run a check and she confirmed that the program doesn’t have any additional subroutines which can harm the Council.”

Shepard looked at his friend still feeling unsure. It was a really risky request and Shepard couldn’t even imagine what could happen if Garrus was wrong. “I’m really sorry to ask you this question, Garrus,” the commander sighed, “but exactly how much do you trust your father not to use any other data from the terminals except for what he asked for?”

Garrus looked Shepard right in the eyes with calm but determined expression. “I would trust him with your life,” he replied.

***

Like the Alliance headquarters and the surrounding area were rebuilt first on Earth, the Citadel Tower was the starting point of rebuilding the Citadel. There wasn't anything surprising in the fact that the core of the Galactic government looked as good as new. It hadn't changed much, looking almost exactly as Shepard remembered from years ago when he found himself there for the first time.

Shepard was trying to reach his destination quickly, not to attract anyone’s attention, especially considering that the moment he entered the Presidium he was met with his own face displayed on one of the buildings. The image was massive, visible from hundreds of meters away. Flashy letters under the portrait were saying ‘Together we can face any challenge.’

Shepard sighed trying not to think about it too much and hurried towards the elevators to the Tower, trying to hide his face by looking down to the floor every time he was passing someone, thankful for his new hairstyle which was making it slightly more difficult to recognize him.

Shepard still wasn’t sure about the reason he was invited, nor how he’d proceed with hacking one of the council terminals and the thought was nearly making him groan in frustration. The council members were the only people with access to their terminals and getting a hold on one of them without being noticed seemed an impossible task. He agreed to help Garrus, but he had also explained that there weren’t any guarantees he would succeed.

There was a line before the pedestal leading to the councilor’s stands and the councilors themselves were currently talking to a volus, who desperately tried to prove something about the importance of his business and how it was affecting the well-being of every citadel citizen.

From the look on their faces, Shepard could clearly see that they were listening him with only half-ear. Tevos was rubbing the bridge of her nose like she was having a bad headache while Sparatus and Valern were concentrated on their terminals. Not working with them or pressing anything, but simply looking down. It seemed like they couldn’t wait for the volus’ speech to end to deny whatever the merchant was asking for.

The asari was also the one who first noticed Shepard. Not waiting even a second longer, she excused herself and turned around moving towards the exit on the other side of their platform, waving Shepard to follow.

“Commander, I’m glad you’re here,” she sighed when they finally reached her office.

“Sorry, I’m a little late. I Got distracted by some people demanding my attention,” Shepard chuckled noting two C-Sec officers next to her door, before following Tevos inside.

The place was nice, with a good view on the Presidium. Spacious and brightly lit, it didn't look much different from the majority of the workplaces at the embassies of the space station. At the same time Shepard could see several decoration elements he recognized as Thessian. It looked like even the asari councilor wasn’t unaffected by the tendencies of making the working place look a little bit like home.

Shepard's gaze stopped on the terminal on the counselor’s desk, pondering if he would have a chance of accessing it without the councilor noticing. Currently Tevos wasn’t looking at the commander directly, but at the same time, she kept him in the field of her vision.  

“I can’t say that your timing was bad,” Tevos shook her head. “Talking to volus merchants isn’t exactly an easy task.”

“What did he want?” Shepard inquired.

“As usual,” the counselor sighed, “reducing the taxes for his used car shop. Like he has no idea how desperately we need every credit we collect from those taxes.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“No, it’s not that bad,” The councilor confuted. “It’s worse. The Citadel might look like its nearly rebuilt, but the clean streets and repaired buildings aren’t covering even a half of the damage done to this place. The infrastructure of the Citadel is still ruined. It took over a year to simply make it possible to live here again, but the funds donated from every corner of the galaxy are gone now. We have so many problems even with something so simple as organizing the delivery of provision. Communications are still cut off in some areas, the --” she stumbled over the words, before turning her head away. “I’m sorry, I really shouldn’t complain, especially not to you."

Shepard hadn't had time to think about the speed at which the station came back online and habitable again. There was a technical reason for every council and council-wanna-be species pouring their resources on the reconstruction, as without the station functioning, none of the mass relays worked.

Yet, there was another reason, a stronger one. The Citadel had become not only a means to restart space travel, it was also a symbol, one that now represented a cycle who had survived the harvest. It was a physical manifestation of their victory and an almost unlimited source of morale booster for generations to come. It was not surprising that in the rush of making the station presentable, such tasks as logistics and communications were overlooked.

Tevos shook her head and moved to the balcony, leaning on the rail and looking down on the Presidium, her face calm, almost emotionless, but even she could not hide how tired she looked.

Shepard moved closer to her, following her gaze with his eyes. The Presidium from here looked almost peaceful. It wasn’t as green as it used to be, but at the same time it was much quieter with less traffic, less birds chirping. “Everyone needs to spill out the negative thoughts from time to time to someone,” he said.

Not forgetting about his friend's request, he also started to check if it was possible to climb into the office from the Presidium, but noticed more C-Sec officers patrolling the street below. It was the highest concentration of the Citadel Security Shepard had ever seen in one area, and as Garrus asked not to involve anyone else, he couldn't see a way to get inside the office without attracting attention.

“But it is not why we summoned you,” Tevos explained, almost making Shepard flinch as if he was caught in the middle of committing a crime. “We have something which might require your help.”

“Well, I’d like to," he gathered himself, "but there is some medical paperwork from the Alliance, which says I’m not ready to return to active duty except for supervision work.”

“Well, there is no enemy to fight right now but hunger and political disputes.”

“I’m not sure I can help fight any of those,” Shepard shook his head.

“I concerns Wrex,” Tevos said.

It caught Shepard's attention. He raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear Tevos mentioning his friend, pondering what Wrex could do to concern the counselor so much it required the commander's assistance. As any krogan, Wrex was famous for his short temper, but Shepard couldn't imagine him wanting to start another conflict with any of the Council species, moreover not while Bakara was around.

“All right, what is going on?” Shepard asked.

“As you probably heard, the Council is reviewing an idea of accepting every major specie participated in the Reaper War into our ranks," Tevos started. "A month ago Wrex sent a diplomat as a candidate on a consular seat, but it was a disaster. This diplomat couldn't function in civilized conditions. Every time he disagreed with something he was starting to break things and threaten people.”

Shepard had in fact heard about the Council’s expansion. He also knew that it wasn't a decision they were going to make lightly. Each candidate had to be carefully evaluated and pass a trial term as an active ambassador, which could last up to ten galactic years. He could also imagine how having a krogan ambassador could be problematic for the Council.  “Yeah, sounds like a krogan,” Shepard agreed, still unable to hide an inappropriate grin.

It looked like Tevos noticed Shepard's amused tone. She gave him a disapproving glance, but did not comment. “There is no way we can allow this krogan to get a seat. It would lead to a catastrophe. And if we deny the request, I’m afraid there is chance of another krogan rebellion. We can’t allow it happening,” Tevos explained.

“So, you want me to talk to him?” Shepard hummed.

“We could send another delegate to negotiate, but I don’t think it would work. We need someone who knows him. Unfortunately, there are only two people among Specters who do. We could of course request for Specter Alenko’s assistance, but his diplomatic skills aren’t exactly suitable.”

“Yeah,” Shepard chuckled. Kaidan’s diplomacy had always consisted of long meaningful staring looks with occasional interruptions for too straight forward feedbacks on the occasions where people he talked to didn’t have a higher rank. If they did, it was only the starting part. No matter how much Shepard considered it to be adorable, it wasn’t making Kaidan a better diplomat.

“All right, what is the time table?” Shepard inquired.

“Sooner is better, of course. But I understand that you’re currently on a mission from the Alliance. I can try to delay the Council's decision about the krogan diplomat, but not longer than a week,” Tevos sighed moving back inside the office. “The Council will also reinstate you as a Specter. Unfortunately, there are not much resources to spare, but if you will need any intel from us, you will be able to get it. We will also contact the Alliance and explain that you won’t be assigned to anything compromising your health.”

“Unless Wrex decides to give me a hug,” Shepard chuckled. The asari gave him a slightly confused glance but then managed something which at least reminded a soft smile, before moving towards the exit and opening the door.

“I should return to work,” she said pointing the commander to the exit. “Thank you again for your assistance.”

Shepard started to exit the office, giving the last glance to the terminal on the counselor's desk. There wasn’t any way he could have accessed it. Apparently he would have to return to the _Normandy_ and apologize to Garrus, explain that the task he asked to help with was impossible to complete. At least Garrus would be able to get the access to the Specter terminals if needed, so maybe it would suffice.

Shepard had already been on his way to the exit of the Tower as yet another keeper approached him. The commander fully expected it to give something useless yet again, but instead the keeper reached for one of Shepard’s pockets and extracted the data-chip with the virus Garrus had given him, before Shepard even had time to react.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Shepard surprised.

The keeper turned around and started to run away with unexpectedly high speed. Shepard tried to pursue, but the moment the keeper reached one of the walls, it disappeared from the view.

“Damn it!” Shepard muttered through teeth.

He looked down the entrance to one of the keeper tunnels. The narrow passage was dark and it was impossible to even guess how deep it lead, or how many forks and joint tubes were attached to it. There wasn’t a single way Shepard could find the stupid thing now.

It definitely wasn’t his day.


	9. Chapter 9

At around twenty hundred hours, Shepard found himself digging desperately through every drawer in the medical bay in attempt to find a stronger analgesic than the one he was prescribed with, because even a double dosage wasn't helping with the excruciating pain in his entire body. The commander didn't hear the door open and Liara slipping inside the med bay.

“You look like you’re about to collapse,” she observed concerned. “Are you alright?”

“Stairs, Liara,” Shepard sighed, “there have been so many stairs.” He opened another drawer digging through the endless rows of plastic bottles with different pills. “Do you have any idea what I should take to shut myself down?” he asked with hope.

“You shouldn’t go heavy on the medications, Shepard. It’s not good,” Liara said reached for the commander and patting him on the back.

“My knees are killing me," Shepard shook his head, "I don’t think I will be able to fall asleep without something really strong, and I don’t want to feel like shit tomorrow either.”

“How did they allow you to return to work?” Liara sighed. “It is obvious that you need to continue your therapy and stay home, instead of running around the galaxy chasing the bad guys again.”

Shepard would have tried to argue if it was someone else, but Liara had always been able to speak with so much softness, that sometimes Shepard thought she could persuade anyone. He knew that he didn't stand a chance.

“Because I did really start to feel better,” Shepard explained while attempting to take a seat. It was a very ungraceful move and looked more like he fell ontop of a chair, instead of descending properly, but it worked.

“You should take better care of yourself,” Liara shook her head as she reached for one of the drawers extracting a small bottle of pills from the very back and giving it to the commander. “Here,” she said, “but take only one.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Shepard laughed accepting the bottle. “Hopefully we will be able to find a proper medical expert soon,” he also added. “And my guess is that we will find one tomorrow.”

“You remain positive as usual,” Liara smiled.

“I just know she will reconsider,” Shepard nodded, “I could see it in her eyes.”

“I hope you’re right,” Liara said, “we really need a doctor on the ship before we reach Horizon. Who knows what we will find there.”

“Don’t worry, we will figure it out,” Shepard reassured.

Liara turned away like she was about to leave, but then turned her head back and looked at the commander. “I actually wanted to ask you about one more thing,” she said quietly, like she was slightly nervous. “Javik is currently on the Citadel, is there any chance he could join us?”

Shepard smiled wide watching Liara’s slim fingers playing nervously with the edge of her white leather coat. “On one condition,” he grinned.

“Oh?” The asari surprised.

“I know it's none of my business," Shepard said, "but as your friend, I was wondering if there is anything between you two.”

Liara blinked averting her eyes away from her friend. “It is… complicated,” she replied after a pause. “I mean there nothing technically going on between us, but,” she paused.

“You would like it,” Shepard concluded.

“There was a moment when we needed to share information and he proposed to meld our minds, because it was the most efficient way. Let’s say I enjoyed it too much,” she explained shyly. “We’ve never talked about it afterwards.”

Shepard stood from the chair trying to ignore the pain in his legs and blaming himself for taking a seat in the first place, then he walked towards the asari placing his hand on her shoulder. “It would be great to have him back,” he smiled.

“Thank you, Shepard,” Liara nodded, “you’re a great friend,” she said, moving closer and wrapping her arms gently around him.

“You’re a great friend too, Liara,” Shepard replied, hugging the asari back.

“Now, do you need any help getting to your quarters?” she asked as they finally stepped from each-other.

Shepard imagined the distance between the medical bay and his quarters. The offer was tempting, but the thought about his crew seeing him led there by anyone was making him uncomfortable. “I’ll manage,” he shook his head.

“All right then. Good night,” she wished.

“To you too,” Liara smiled once again before leaving the medical bay.

Shepard glanced at the small plastic bottle in his hands sighing. There wasn't any instruction on the label and the only thing the white sticker said was 'Oxycodone 10mg'. Shepard didn't need an instruction, he was familiar the the drug, being prescribed it on the early stage of his recovery. It was a strong thing and addictive if using for too long.

He turned the bottle on the side, trying to see how many pills it contained. The bottle was full, unopened, but it was impossible to count the small white tablets, beyond the point it was way over the safe amount.

Shepard pondered about opening the bottle and returning it back to the shelf after taking one pill. Yet, the way his body was reacting on a simple stress of too much walking could complicate the entire mission.

Shepard decided to trust his own judgment. He snatched the bottle into his pocket and exited the med bay.

***

Shepard startled awake breathing heavily in attempt to catch his breath. He reached for the other side of the bed, trying to find Kaidan, but the bed was empty. Shepard looked around the room fixing his glance on the ceiling where he could see the gray outlines of the Citadel wards above his head and remembered that he was not in his and his husband’s apartment, but in the Captain's quarters on board of the _Normandy_ , which still stood docked on the Citadel. Shepard let out a heavy sigh, trying to calm his fast beating heart.

It was the same dream, the same empty field enveloped in blue fire he had seen before, with the same cold blue moon rising above the landscape. The commander had never believed in the ominous dreams, considering them as a sign of his own fears slipping from his subconscious mind, but this nightmare felt different somehow.

It wasn't like his dreams about the forest and the little child, because back then he knew that the images were born out of his fear of not being able to save everyone, of being weak. But right now there was no war to fight, no danger great enough to be afraid of losing people. Still, the dream felt so vivid that just thinking about it was making the commander shiver.

Shepard felt so lonely laying on the large bed in his quarters, that he pondered calling Kaidan, just so he could hear his husband’s voice. He looked over his shoulder at the clock and saw that it was only a little over four hundred thirty hours. Kaidan was probably still asleep at that time and Shepard didn’t want to wake him.

Shepard doubted that he could get back to sleep, so climbed out of the bed starting to dress. His body felt slightly dizzy from sleep and the medications he took the night before, but at least the pain was gone for what the commander was truly thankful. He looked around his quarters trying to figure how to occupy himself, but as there was nothing to do, he decided to go down to the mess hall and make some coffee.

The _Normandy_ was silent and dark at the early hour. The engines were powered down and it was so very quiet that to Shepard it seemed even unreal. He walked down the hall towards the mess hall, navigating by the emergency lights on the walls -- the only source of light in the entire ship.

Shepard made his way to the kitchen area reaching for the coffee maker. Surprisingly, it had a pot of hot fresh-made coffee inside. Shepard hummed quietly, wondering who else was awake to make the coffee.

“Hey, Shepard,” he heard a familiar voice behind him and turned around.

Vega was sitting on one of the chairs with his fingers wrapped around a large mug, sipping from it.

“Have problems sleeping?” Shepard inquired reaching for the kitchen cabinet and extracting a mug similar to the one in Vega’s hands.

“Nah,” the major chuckled. “Had a short ‘shore leave’ in the Purgatory with Esteban. Just returned.”

“The place is functional?” Shepard asked raising his eyebrow in surprise.

“Not really,” Vega replied shaking his head. “Just a section. No strippers, no decent alcohol and the stuff they have is expensive as shit. At least they have some good music and an opportunity to have a good time if you don't mind overpaying.”

“Right,” Shepard nodded with a chuckle, “and how exactly do you expect to perform your duties without any sleep?”

“Well, Steve returned a few hours earlier so he will get his sleep. And myself... I’ll manage, Loco. There are still some perks in being less than thirty, you know,” he winked. “No offence, Shepard,” he then added with a grin.

“Hey, I’m not that old, you know!” Shepard replied pretending to be offended. “Pretty young actually, where it counts. You can ask Kaidan,” he added with a wink.

“Too much information,” Vega protested raising his hand.

Shepard laughed pouring coffee into the mug and, after adding some sugar and powdered creamer, bringing it to his mouth. For a moment the two men were silent enjoying the early morning and the drink. The hot, slightly bitter liquid felt refreshing, working its magic nearly instantly, making the commander feel more awake. Or maybe it was just psychological aspect of drinking coffee playing its role.

“So, James,” Shepard said finally, “you’re my executive officer now?"

“Yeah, well,” Vega rubbed the back of his neck sounding slightly embarrassed, “I kinda never had a chance to mention --”

“That you've been the commanding officer of the _Normandy_ for this past year?” Shepard finished his sentence, “I just spotted the note looking through the ship's files,” he explained, "actually, this one was difficult to miss even if you tried."

“Sorry, that I didn’t mention it,” Vega sighed.

Shepard walked to the table taking a seat next to the other man. “It’s me who should apologize,” he said, “I know how much you wanted to command your own ship, and when you finally were given a chance, I return and take her from you.”

Vega looked at the commander with a smirk. “I did want to command my own ship," he said, "hell, I even worked my ass off for it the entire last year," he sighed and made another sip out of his coffee mug before continuing.  "After several months of cleaning up the rubble with no holidays or days off, the Alliance brass offered me the position. I had no idea what ship it was going to be, even wanted to refuse when I found out. Then I decided to accept, you know, to hold a spot for you," he grinned.

"Uh-huh," Shepard replied in disbelief.

"No really, I just had a feeling you were going to return," Vega said and this time he sounded serious, "the _Normandy_ is your ship, and she always will be.”

A wave of warmth ran through Shepard’s stomach. It was unusual for Vega to talk about something in such an open manner. “Thanks, James,” he smiled without any note of sarcasm.

“You’re welcome, Shepard,” Vega replied. “And don’t you worry. Even if I get my very own ship to command, I’ll still have your back if you will decide to get into trouble.”

On that Shepard laughed.

The two of them sat in the mess hall for some time, before the ship started to slowly coming back to life. First it was the main lights turning on in the entire ship, then some people slowly started waking up before the usual six hundred hours alarm. Soon the Normandy returned to it's every-day routine of conversations in the mess, of dozens of footsteps on the metal floors, of engine's quiet humm.

Finally, Shepard tapped Vega on the shoulder, before standing up and moving to the elevators, as it was time to return to work.

***

There were still a few things to take care of before their departure. The engineers were making final preparations checking the engines in case of any malfunctions, making sure the core drive was running smooth, that the fuel tanks were full.

Shepard checked and rechecked the destination routs of their flight several times, before he forwarded it to Joker. He knew that it was unnecessary, because EDI was perfectly capable of doing it herself, but it also was something Shepard enjoyed. He then stepped out of the ship to look around the place for the last time before they would take off.

There was a reason why he decided to wait outside. He still expected Javik to show up any moment. The prothean was very punctual and had a great sense of timing, so the commander wasn’t worrying that he could delay them.

Indeed, no more than ten minutes before the scheduled departure, Javik appeared in the docking bay. He was still wearing his old armor and was carrying a rather large box in his hands. Several people in the dock was giving Javik surprised looks, but he seemed to pay zero attention to that fact.

He also seemed to ignore the person walking next to him, desperately trying to have a conversation with the prothean. The sight of the second person made Shepard smile as it looked like the _Normandy_ was finally getting a medical officer.

The two of them approached the ship and Javik greeted Shepard with something which appeared a smile and a scowl at the same time. Doctor Sonars was still distracted by him and seemed not to notice the commander.

“So the different color of released dark energy may be connected to the difference in the DNA structure?” the doctor asked.

“I’m not a scientist,” Javik replied nearly indifferent.

“But as prospective member of the _Normandy_  's crew, I suppose to know more about your physiology,” Sonars explained.

“I cannot help you, doctor,” Javik said.

“Would you allow me to run some test?” the doctor inquired.

“No,” Javik simply denied. “Commander,” he then acknowledged, nodding to Shepard.

“Javik, Doctor Sonars,” Shepard greeted with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to be able to have you on board,” he wanted to offer Javik his hand to shake, but both prothean’s arms seemed to be occupied with the box.

“I didn’t expect to work with you again,” Javik said relocating the box to one of his hands, which made it look uncomfortable, before reaching for the commander’s hand himself. It seemed Javik was more and more accustomed to human traditions after over a year spent in the current cycle. “But I can’t deny that I’m surprisingly pleased about it.”

“It’s great to have you back,” Shepard smiled, shaking his hand.

Javik gave the commander one final nod before getting a better grip on the box he was carrying and moving ahead towards the ship’s airlock, leaving Shepard and Doctor Sonars alone.

Shepard smiled even wider offering his hand to the doctor, “Doctor Sonars, it looks like you changed your mind,” he said.

“Not exactly,” she shook her head. “Before I will agree to work on the ship, I need to know if there are going to be any additional people joining us.”

Shepard blinked not exactly understanding why the doctor would ask such a question. “Sometimes we acquire members we have never planned on,” he explained. “Sometimes we have diplomatic delegations on board the ship, so I can’t exactly guarantee.”

“But no more planned members assigned by headquarters?”

“No, only the ones on the list I have given you,” Shepard confirmed. “Why would you ask?”

“Professional interest. I will need to organize medical files,” she explained duly and surprisingly quick, “so well, yes, you can count on me,” she nodded, moving past him on the way to the ship. “I will go and try to make myself useful,” she said waving her hand and not even turning her head.

“Yeah, you do that,” Shepard nodded to himself as Doctor Sonars had been out of his reach by now.

He scratched the back of his head trying to understand what was her problem, but wasn't able to figure anything out. It looked like it would take some time to get to know the new medical officer better to understand her, but for now Shepard had more pressing matters to deal with.


	10. Chapter 10

The _Normandy_ had spent over four hours orbiting Horizon. Every twenty minutes EDI was sending probes to the planet surface in attempt to find anything suspicious, and so far neither the scanner, nor probes had found a thing. Shepard understood that the procedures like that was supposed to be time-consuming, but the understanding wasn’t making it easier to be patient.  

Shepard tried to work on a report he was planning to send back to the admiral, and realized that he had already written down everything he could -- he needed to finish the mission first to continue working on it. He tried to entertain himself with monitoring EDI’s progress, but watching over numbers, as they were passing a terminal screen was as entertaining as watching a wall.

Shepard stretched on his chair and looked at the clock. It was slightly over twelve hundred. He stood from his workstation, moving towards the exit of his cabin. He wasn’t sure where he was going to go, but decided that anything was going to be better than killing time by sitting in his quarters. Perhaps he could check on Liara and see how she was settling up, he decided, or chat with Garrus, as with everything going on he still didn’t find a chance to simply talk with his old friend.

Upon exiting the elevator and his attention was momentarily attracted to Private Neith. She sat on the floor, leaning on the metal wall next to the crew quarters entrance, holding a plastic bottle in her hand. Her regulation shirt was taken off and tied around her waist, and the only thing she was wearing on her upper half was a white sleeveless undershirt, which while wasn't completely see-through, was transparent enough to see the black sport bra she was wearing underneath. The private’s skin was glistening with sweat and she was breathing heavy like she just finished a series of exercises, but her face was a very unhealthy shade of green.

“Are you alright?” Shepard asked. He walked towards the girl and hunkering down in front of her.

“I’m fine, sir,” the private replied sharply taking another sip from her bottle.

The commander leaned in, unceremoniously taking the bottle from her hand and moving it to his nose, sniffing, then taking a sip himself. It was just water.

“I’m not on any substances,” Neith sighed, “I swear.”

“And what is going on?”

The private looked the commander in the eyes, her jaw clenched. “The ship,” she whispered apologetically, closing her eyes and resting her head against the metal wall, “It’s drifting up and down, up and down. All the time.”

Shepard’s eyes widened in surprise. Every modern ship was equipped with strong inertial dampeners and it was nearly impossible to feel them moving, so sometimes even he was forgetting where they were. The cases of space sickness were extremely rare even among the people who had never been in space. The thought about the private beeing simply space-sick, didn’t occur to him.

“Aren’t you suppose to have training for this sort of things?” Shepard asked glancing over the girl, “I mean, ‘private’ is still a rank and you can’t get it without any sort of training.”

Neith groaned quietly, turning her head to the side to press one of her temples to the cool metal, “I passed the basic cadet training half a year ago,” she explained, not opening her eyes, “then I was supposed to go through the basic biotic training program which is an extension of the full cadet training, you know, the one with the outer space trips, but including the biotic practices. In the middle of it they’d discovered my unique talent and shoved me into the biotic special operation division, directly under Major Alenko,” she took another deep breath, “I mean, wow, I was excited about it. Training with the second human Specter, a man of legend… pretty handsome too --”

Shepard coughed pointedly, Neith opened her eyes and looked at the commander with something that most likely was supposed to be a soft smile or a sly grin, but in her condition appeared more of a scowl, “sorry, sir, I was just stating a fact, nothing more. Anyway,” she continued, “the spec. op. team was great. I have always been weaker in general level of biotic power, but they found a way to make my abilities work together and increase the general potential of the squad. Then it was decided that I should accompany you on the mission. That was even more exciting than the spec. op., but you see, I have never had the outer space training. Somehow it got all mixed up and forgotten.”

The commander narrowed his eyebrows. Never in his life he’d heard about the Alliance forgetting someone’s training program, moreover assigning that someone to one of the fighting frigates. The file of each individual in service had always been kept with a surgical precision and Neith’s case was simply unthinkable. On another hand, Shepard only had a vague idea about the state of military efficiency these days. Never in human history had so many people perished in battle; it shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise that the Alliance was doing everything to replenish its ranks. Even if it meant sending out half-trained men and women to various missions in hope that they would get their training on a field.

It also could’ve happened not because of the cold calculus, but simply because there wasn’t enough cadres left in the offices to keep tabs on all the recruits. In this case, the situation was even more dire then Shepard thought, because if the Alliance’s hierarchical head was so incompetent, it was going to affect everyone and for longer period of time. Either way, it wasn’t pleasant to think about.

Shepard nodded with a sigh. “So, why are you sitting here? The med bay is just around the corner,” he pointed out.

“Sir, I can assure you that I can handle it,” Neith protested. “We have no idea when we will get the results from the planet scan.”

Shepard stood up ignoring his own pains and own health problems with which he wasn’t always going to the doctors. He crossed his hands on his chest, looking down at the girl with as little emotion he could show, “med bay, Private. That is an order,” he said, his tone authoritative.

Neith glanced at the commander a little stunned. It looked like she was about to argue, but then she simply exhaled and nodded. “Aye, sir,” she replied.

Shepard offered her a hand. Neith’s face still looked pale, but just for a second he could see blush spreading over her cheeks. She shook her head and rose up from the floor on her own, moving past the commander, swaying slightly as she walked. The commander shook his head and followed the girl to the sick bay.

***

It had only been one day since Doctor Sonars joined the crew, but when Shepard walked into the medical bay, it looked like the good doctor had been occupying the place for months. The shelves and the counters of the room were stocked with jars and bottles of unidentified content. Some of them were filled with opaque liquids, others had weird plants or even small animals bottled in a transparent substances. On one of the tables, right next to the latest model microscope, was a system of small vials, connected to each-other with plastic pipes and a small heating device underneath. The place looked like some sort of an alchemy lab. Shepard also suspected that it smelled like it, but he wasn’t sure, because he had never been in an alchemy lab before and had nothing to compare it with. In any way, it smelled absolutely different from the medical bay he used to have on the ship.

“What’s all this?” Shepard asked looking around the room.

“Don’t you worry, Commander,” he heard doctor Sonar’s voice, coming from somewhere behind one of the beds, then, only a moment later the doctor herself appeared with a small metal container in her hands. She moved away from the bed placing the container on one of the shelves, then turned back to the commander. “I’m not going to replace the modern ways of medicine with this. Only a small addition,” she smiled, “plus, I’m only in the process of stocking the shelves, the med bay will look as usual when I’ll finish.”

“But, what is this even…” Shepard moved to examine one of the jars with brown-white substance inside. It looked like someone mixed two-percent milk with dirt and poured some water into the mix to make it slightly less opaque. Something bubbled inside the jar when Shepard picked it up and he almost dropped the thing as a tiny eye turned to look at him. A moment later he realized that it wasn’t actually an eye but more of a white round root-plant with an iris-like circle  pigmentation on several sides.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” she simply said.

“Is it even legal?” Shepard asked pointing on the bottle with an obvious rat-like creature.

“Yup,” Sonars nodded, “I can give you every single piece of documentation on the things I have. You can read all about it, if you have nothing better to do,” she grinned almost malevolently, “but it wasn’t a reason why you came here, was it?”

“Yeah,” Shepard nodded, remembering the actual reason, “Private Neith is sick.”

Neith sighed and moved to sit on one of the beds, the only one which wasn’t occupied with jars and boxes. “I just got space-sick,” she explained, “nothing serious.”

Doctor walked to the girl, scanning her with the omni-tool and nodded. “It happens,” she said and moved to one of the shelves on the other side of the room. Her movements were graceful, precise; it was the way only someone who knew where every single item or medication was stored at could move. She extracted a hypo from the shelf and loaded it with a small tube, returning to the bed with same exact precision. “This should ease the symptoms,” she explained injecting the consistence of the hypo into the girl’s shoulder.

“Umm, thanks,” Neith nodded. Then she suddenly yawned and fell down onto the bed.

“What was that all about?” Shepard surprised eyeing the private with suspicion.

“Let her sleep for half an hour,” Sonars simply explained, pressing several buttons on the controls of the bed. The screens over the bed activated covering the girl with a dome of blue field.

“I don’t really want to discuss your expertise, but we have anti-nausea patches,” Shepard pointed out.

“You’re right, Commander, you really don’t want to discuss my expertise,” Sonars nodded, “the patch would get her hundred percent on the feet in hour minimum, because the patches are designed to be used before you become sick, not after. In half an hour she will wake up as fresh as she can be. And then we will stick a patch.”

She was looking over Shepard appraisingly, the look one could give to a newly bought sofa, while deciding if it should stand next to a wall or in the center of the room, closer to a TV-stand. Under that intent stare, the commander suddenly found himself feeling insignificant, like a freshly graduated cadette standing in in front of a squad leader and not the other way around. He suddenly understood that the medical bay was taken over by the new medical officer and was now her personal domain where she was a rightful ruler and anyone entering it would have to behave appropriately.

Well, it didn’t mean that he was going to back off easily, Shepard decided. In the end it was his ship and there simply wasn’t too many people in the world who could stare him down. At least there wasn’t many people like that among those who didn’t know him well enough to know what levers to push. “Anything you need?” he inquired, crossing his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow.

Sonars looked down at his arms and rolled her eyes as if dismissing his worthiness and Shepard found himself thinking two absolutely irrelevant and somewhat opposite thoughts at the same moment. Sonars had a personality he would most likely fall for if he met her around ten years ago, was the first of them. The second was that he really missed Chakwas.

“Yes,” Sonars nodded finally, her expression turning into a business-like smile “mind if I scan you?” she asked.

“Ugh, sure,” Shepard nodded in defeat, realizing that if the fight over the medical bay wasn’t a lost case before, it sure was now.

Sonars approached the commander and activated her omni-tool again, starting to move it slowly around his body, watching carefully for the readings she was receiving. “Your implants are working properly,” she informed, but it wasn’t news to Shepard. The scan he had made right before the departure showed the same exact results and it wasn’t yet time for his next scheduled medical examination. “How often do you experience pain in your legs?” she asked.

“Sometimes,” Shepard answered honestly, “weather changes, temperature changes, too much physical exertion.”

The pain wasn’t surprising, as almost every single bone in his legs was shattered when a column fell on them. The right one was the worst, as the doctors couldn’t grow the patella back. The doctors explained why they couldn’t do it, but Shepard didn’t exactly understand every word they said. The only thing he’d carried out from the conversation was that they had to replace his knee cup with a metal one. He also knew that all of that information was in his medical file.

“I see,” Doctor Sonars nodded, then she moved towards the drawers on the far end of the room, starting to pull out some jars and bottles without any labels. She opened at least five different bottles, sniffing them, then pulled out a glass, starting to carefully mix liquids into it. Then she returned to Shepard, offering the glass. “Drink it,” she ordered.

The commander glanced at the glass with distrust, before reluctantly accepting it. The liquid filling it was greenish-yellow and smelled like a mix of vorcha piss and strawberries. “Um, what is it?” he asked tentatively.

“Medicine, drink it,” Sonars explained, “I will prepare you a glass every day. It will replace the acetaminophen you’ve been prescribed with.”

“Um,” Shepard hummed, contemplating over the content of the glass, “are you sure it is even safe?”

Sonars smirked at him in a way that reminded him that he had no say in the matter. Then she probably decided that it wasn’t enough and reminded it verbally: “you wanted me to be your medical officer, so here I am. Drink it.”

“All right,” Shepard sighed bringing the glass to his lips, emptying it in several large gulps. The thing tasted so bad, that Shepard suspected that he would need an anti-nausea patch himself, “remind me to write a complaint note to Doctor Chakwas for advising a torturer as a medical officer,” he managed a smile at her.

“Oh, I'm only getting started,” Sonars smiled back wolfishly.

Shepard opened his mouth to insert a remark, but one of the medical scanners beeped, distracting him. Sonars turned her head in the direction of the sound and nodded: “looks like the extraction of DNA sequences is complete,” she informed walking to the scanner and pulling out a piece of black fabric, Shepard recognized as his own hoodie.

Earlier this morning the commander received the results of the DNA test from the pendant he found in the warehouse in Vancouver a few days ago. The test by itself didn’t say anything, besides that the person who used to wear it was definitely a human female. Based on the theory Liara came up with, he brought his black hoodie and asked Sonars if it was possible to find a sample of a matching DNA anywhere on the piece of clothing, as the evening Shepard met the little girl, he gave this exact hoodie for her to wear.

“Looks like it found four DNA samples on the jacket,” Sonars informed nodding at the scanner, “I’ll have to compare all four with the results which came from the lab,” then she paused, narrowing her eyes as she looked over the data, “oh, scratch that, will have to compare three of them – one is a _Mesocricetus Newtoni_ DNA,” she smirked.

“Mesocri… what?” Shepard raised his eyebrow.

“A Romanian Hamster,” the doctor laughed, “so, you have a pet?”

“Yeah, but it is a space hamster,” Shepard corrected.

Now it was the doctor’s turn to raise an eyebrow, “there is no such --” she stopped mid-sentence looking at Shepard again, “oh, right!” she nodded, “a space hamster.”

“So, how long will the comparison test take?” Shepard inquired to change the topic, trying to ignore her mocking expression at the same time.

“Not long,” she replied, “around fifteen minutes if I you want to get the result for all three samples,” she activating a holographic panel next to the scanner, starting to work with it. “You can wait here if you wish.”

“Sure,” Shepard nodded settling himself on a chair.

“Hey, Commander,” Joker’s cheerful voice announced through the comm in the room, “I think we found something. Some sort of a construction, approximately hundred meters under the ground. There is no way to tell exactly -- it is way too deep for any probe.”

“Roger that,” Shepard affirmed, “I’ll be right there.”

“Landing party,” the commander suddenly heard Neith groan. He turned his eyes towards the bed and noticed the girl, whose face was less green than it was ten minutes ago, but still quite unhealthy, standing from the bed and moving out of the sick bay.

“Wow,” Sonars almost whistled in surprise watching the private leave, “that thing supposed to last at least thirty minutes, not ten. The girl has some serious fortitude against chemicals.”

“Is she ready to go ashore?” Shepard asked concerned.

“Get her out of the ship for at least an hour,” Sonars shook her head, “she is no fit for anything right now, but if there will be a chance to drop her somewhere safe for the time the landing party investigates the place, it will only do good,” she explained. “If this will be impossible, drag her back here.”

“All right,” Shepard nodded, “I’ll do that. Looks like the test results will have to wait,” he said before turning on his heel and exiting the med bay himself.

***

There were many reasons of why the _Normandy_ was superior to Kodiak. Of course the most noticeable were the size, the speed, the shielding and the engine power. But there were still little things which usually were going unnoticeable by the majority of people who had an experience of flying in both.

One of such examples was the inertia dampeners, generating by the Mass Effect fields installed in every flying vehicle of the end of twenty second century. Of course, those dampeners were not be able to suppress the inertia completely and if a ship or a shuttle was about to turn over or receive a direct hit, people inside would most definitely feel it, but for the most occasions the dampeners provided comfort for the passengers, reducing the effect of such events as occasional turbulence while entering planet atmospheres. And the Kodiak, as the trips on the shuttles were supposed to be less extensive, did a worse job of it than any actual ship.

Neith pulled down her gauntlet, sticking another med-patch to her skin, before returning the gauntlet back to her hand. Her skin tone was slowly returning to normal and she felt way better than half an hour ago, but it still didn’t look like she was suitable for any operations. The body-tight gray armor suit seemed to make the situation even worse, but if she was to step out of the Kodiak, no way Shepard could allow her to go anywhere without the armor.

“Throwing an unprepared soldier in the middle of the fight...” Javik hummed thoughtfully, observing the girl.

“Let me guess,” Garrus replied with a tone of amusement in his voice, “it is a mistake which can cause the failure of the entire operation. This cycle has no idea how to train soldiers.”

“That was exactly the opposite of what I intended to say,” Javik smirked. “In my cycle it was a common practice of throwing a group of cadets into battle. The ones who survived, were considered ready to join the main army forces.”

“Please, tell me it was just another of your attempts to joke,” Liara shook her head.

“It was not,” Javik grinned.

“I’m not going into any combat,” Neith sighed. Shepard allowed her to get out of the ship, but with a condition that she would stay with Steve at the extraction point to give her some time on solid ground.

Appearing so weak and useless in the eyes of the man whom she idolized for a long time and considered a reason of inspiration, was making her feel miserable, but she wasn’t stupid to be deaf to a reason. She simply needed to adjust to being on board of the ship and in no time she could prove herself to the commander.

“Normandy to the shore party,” came Shepard’s voice over the intercom, “what is your status?”

The commander himself was in a worse position, Neith though, because he wasn’t even allowed to leave the Normandy unless the landing point was proven to be safe. He only could supervise the mission from the orbit. Leaving the captain on board the ship while a strike force was cleaning a perimeter considered a common practice, but Shepard’s ways of command was difficult to call standard. Neith knew that he, like a hero from any old sci-fi story, was used to throw himself in the way of danger, not afraid of anything that could happen to him. Neith thought that it must’ve been really difficult for him to stay behind.

“Commander, the shore party is approaching the drop point,” Steve informed.

“All right, you all know what you have to do and I know that you will do great, because I can’t expect anything less from the best team in the galaxy,” Shepard encouraged, “I expect to hear from you in half an hour. Good luck.”

Neith winced hearing the commander’s words. It was difficult to consider herself a part of a team, while she couldn’t do a thing to help them. Best family in the galaxy, best school in the galaxy, best biotic squad in the galaxy and now, as Shepard phrased, the best team in the Galaxy. And Neith couldn’t fit anywhere.

***

Doctor Sonars looked over the second DNA comparison test results and smiled. It was a perfect match, which meant that whoever this girl was, the medallion belonged to her. Sonars reached toward the scanner’s power switch when something else caught her attention – the scanner started to compare the third DNA sequence she gathered from the fabric, the one presumingly belonging to Shepard as the amount of the sample was dominant. The first fragment of it was also matched the sample provided by the headquarters laboratory.

Sonars stopped half way holding her finger over the power button, not even breathing, watching the computer run the comparison. The third and fifth sequence of the third sample was also a match. It was still not that unusual, as every person in the world was sharing some parts of the DNA code, and even thirty percent of similarity could have been a simple coincidence, she tried to reason. She almost managed to do it, when two other sequences overplayed each-other in a perfect match.

“What is going on here?” she whispered to herself.

Sonars was considered a military doctor who used to work at Alliance Headquarters before the Reaper invasion, and that is why she was briefed on the entire mission. She knew that over a week ago Cerberus tried to smuggle contraband to Earth, she also knew that Commander Shepard had suspicions about a human child being the said contraband – he explained it to her this morning, when he gave her his hoodie. But the commander didn’t mention this. Was it classified information he wasn’t supposed to share even with the medical officer? But Shepard knew that running a DNA test of all three samples would definitely prove, so why didn’t he tell her? Maybe he didn’t know himself?

Sonars turned to the computer looking over the medical database, looking over Shepard’s medical file to make sure the sample from the hoodie she just compared with the one on the medallion belonged to him. It did.

“Great,” she sighed, “and that was me, trying to stay away from drama.”

Sonars turned to the scanner yet again, just to make sure it wasn’t her imagination playing tricks. It wasn’t. The test comparing Shepard’s DNA and the child’s DNA shown around fifty percent match. The sort of match between children and biological parents.

“Commander Shepard,” Sonars called over the comm through her omni-tool, “would you please come to the medical bay?”

 


	11. Chapter 11

The land around the probe, which found the undeground chain of constructions, was nothing but a range of hills covered in tall, rich-green grass. The northern hillsides were surrounded with a line of thin forest and on another side, out in the distance, it was possible to see peaks of dark-brown mountains.

The Kodiak flew over the hills getting closer to the mountain range; it made a few circles around the rocky slopes, before finally finding a perfect spot to land.

“All right squad,” Vega said standing up from the bench and moving to the exit, pushing the handle on the door. It made a distinct whoosh sound and opened, letting a weave of bright sunlight slip into the shuttle.

He leaned out of the shuttle, swiping the surrounding area with his eyes before turning around to face the squad again. “The entrance to the place we are looking for should be somewhere here,” Vega continued, his voice serious. “We hadn’t received any life signatures from the surface, so it is safe to split up to cover wider area. The communicators are online, so we will be able to hear each-other at any moment while on the surface. Anyone, who finds the location, reports immediately and awaits for the rest of us to arrive.”

While talking, his gaze was moving from one member of the squad to another, then his eyes slipped past the passenger area and stopped on Cortez. “Lieutenant, you are going to stay here. The scanners indicated this area to be safe, but if something shows up, take off and contact us and the _Normandy_.”

“Aye, sir,” Cortez nodded.

Vega’s expression changed from snone-like stern into content, making the major look like an absolutely different person. “Good, then let’s get this show on the road,” he grinned jumping out of the Kodiak.

Neith stepped out of the shuttle with a great sense of relief. The anti-nausea patches suppressed her sickness enough to be able to function again, but feeling the solid ground under the feet was incredibly refreshing.

The air was cool, perhaps even slightly chilly, but the sun was warm, which was giving an impression of an early spring. It looked almost like Earth, like a picture of the Alpine Meadows one could find on a postcard, but with less variation of plant life. It was also quieter than any earthen natural site, with less birdsong, less buzzing of the local insects, and the only sound notably present in the area was coming from the wind playing with the grass.

It felt empty.

Neith watched Vega starting to divide the group, dedicating each squad member a specific area of the hills and the mountain side, so they could start the search in those areas. The image of everyone getting their task, working as a team, like a clockwork mechanism so perfect and precise, that it never needed maintenance, made her feel even more out of place than before. Neith wished she could help more, but she wasn’t sure how.

Unless there was a way.

She looked around, noting that the area was mostly consistent of rock and solid ground. She dug the tip of her boot into the soft, thinking. If they had a mineral scanner, which could cover smaller areas and work with more precision than the one they had installed on the _Normandy_ , but larger than the scanners they had on the omni-tools, they could find the entrance by simply locating hollow areas in the ground, or denser areas close to the surface, which could be metal doors.

“Major,” Neith called out walking towards Vega, “sir, I feel better now, so I could help with the search,” she proposed.

Vega turned around and looked over the private, giving her an appraising look, before nodding. “You’re still in no condition to go underground, but another set of eyes to look around the surface won’t hurt.”

“No, sir,” Neith grinned, “a set of eyes was not what I had in mind.”

“And what were you talking about, then?”

“Remember the warehouse?” Neith asked, “I think I can try the same trick I used there for locating the entrance. If the place is around here, I think my biotics will be able to locate it,” she explained.

Vega narrowed his eyebrows, silent for a long moment, before he finally hummed and gave the private a nod, “if you think you will be capable to do it, I can’t see a reason why not to try,” he said.

Neith gave Vega a smile, before saluting and moving away from the rest of the squad. She sat on the ground, closing her eyes, concentrating on the surrounding, trying to touch the surface of the planet with the dark energy.

A moment later an entire different word opened to her. It looked like a rendering of everything around, created with thin glowing lines entangled with each-other, crossing each-other to create objects, surfaces. It was a world painted with only the pallet of the primary and secondary colors on a black background, but like this she could see everything.

There was a dull yellow glow coming from the ground. The mountains on her right side were brighter and their color was orange as the rock solids were denser. From time to time it was possible to see small dots of rare insects climbing up the stems of grass, each glowing in a same shade of red. Unlike insects, every member of the squad was giving out lights of different colors. The biotics in the squad were pulsating in blue, a shine almost blinding; Vega, Garrus and Cortez were less bright and glowing in different gradation of purple.

Neith could allow her biotic vision to go very far, but she still couldn’t see what she was looking for from here. She stood from the ground and started to walk, her eyes still closed. She nearly lost her vision as the world around her spinned slightly, making the nausea return, but Neith suppressed it. The girl heard voices behind her back, but concentrating on this world, she couldn’t quite distinguish anything they were saying. She only noted that the rest of the party was now slowly following her.

Neith wasn’t sure how long she was walking. It looked like she covered a very long distance before she was finally able to see emptiness among the yellow outlines of the soil and opened her eyes. She was standing about a hundred meters away from an impressive formation of rocks. It looked like there had been some sort of a landslide, like the giant rocks were sliced from a bigger mountain formation above and now were laying scattered on the ground.

“There,” Neith pointed out, “there is some sort of a cavern going down underground behind those rocks. It goes really far and really deep.”

Vega walked around her, eyeing the crushed rocks with interest. “Good job,” he nodded, sounding impressed. Then he turned to the rest of the group, activating the omni-tool. “All right, squad,” he said, “the omni-link capacity can only support three people, so it is me, Javik and Liara who will go down. Garrus, you will stay with Lieutenant Cortez and Private Neith and await the reports from us to reroute them to the _Normandy_.”

“I honestly feel better now, sir,” Neith tried to protest, stepping forward. “Plus my biotic abilities can be useful underground.”

“Private,” Vega replied shaking his head, “I saw you sticking a medi-patch to your skin before you put on the armor and two more in the shuttle. You’re basically on sedatives right now, even if you feel great, I can’t allow you go with us.”

Neith felt her own jaw clench, but she didn’t argue. “Aye, sir,” she simply sighed and turned around, walking a few meters away, not even finishing listening to the major.

From behind her, Neith could still hear Vege explaining something to the squad, telling them about the communication signal boosters they were going to use to enhance the radio transmissions, but she payed little attention. The anger she felt was unreasonable, Neith knew it and she understood the major’s reasons, could see their validity. Plus, the accomplishment of finding the entrance in such a short period of time supposed to make her feel better, more useful, but she couldn’t help feeling left out even more instead.

Slowly, the voices behind her started to quiet down, like they were getting further and further away, untill Neith was able to hear anything but a single pair of footsteps approaching her. A hand descended on her shoulder and she turned her head to see Garrus standing beside her, looking somewhere into the distance. “Can you believe that it is the same guy who once, on a party, stuck two straws into his nostrils pretending to be a some sort of earthen sea animal?” he chuckled.

Neith didn’t know Vega well, but from what she could see, the major was giving an impression of a man too serious for his own good. Still, from time to time he was slipping up, smiling way too warm for it to be pretend. Perhaps, it was possible the guy had a goofy side to him somewhere, hiding under the usual posterior of solemness. The idea of Vega doing something inane stopped to be as ridiculous. Neith found herself unable to hold a laughter imagining Vega with straws in his nose, a laughter that melted away every negative thought she had only a minute ago.

“Ready to head out back to the shuttle?” Garrus asked, his voice amused.

“Yeah,” Neith replied starting to walk towards the Kodiak, which from here looked like a small blue dot in the distance.

***

Shepard sat in the medical bay staring at the results of the DNA comparison test.

He wasn’t sure what he expected from them. Probably it was exactly what he received: one of the three different DNA samples from the hoodie was matching the DNA found on the pendant. Whoever this little girl was, now the commander was absolutely sure that the medallion belonged to her.

It lead to another conclusion – the child was in fact present in the warehouse, which was an undeniable proof of Liara’s suspicions. In any other circumstances Shepard would’ve been really happy for the pieces of puzzle in the investigation to perfectly come together, bringing them a great step closer to discovering the truth. But in this case Shepard didn’t really feel this way.

The commander glanced up catching Doctor Sonars examining him with her eyes. “You’ve done a great job,” he said.

“Just pressed a few buttons on the scanners,” Sonars replied simply, but her eyes never left the commander. She was sitting on her chair facing him, looking at him over her own hands, locked under her chin. She looked like she wanted to discuss something, but wasn’t sure how to start.

“Anything else?” Shepard raised his eyebrow feeling slightly uncomfortable under her gaze.

“Is there any chance you could have a child? About five or six years old,” Sonars asked then, making the commander almost drop the data-pad.

Shepard’s eyes widened in surprise. He blinked several times not quite believing his ears. It was possible his hearing was playing a trick on him, because there was no way he heard the question right. He replayed it several times in his head, but each time the words were the same, arranged in the same exact way. “I...” he managed to push the syllable out of his lungs, carefully placing the pad on the table. “No… I think. No! Why?” He asked, shocked.

“The perfect match of the DNA wasn’t the only thing I found,” Sonars said with a heavy sigh, “as you remember, I was able to extract three different human DNA sequences from the jacket and ran a comparison scans for all three. One of them was a perfect match - the one I noted in my report. Another one, I assume the one of your, umm... husband, wasn’t a match at all, but the third had around fifty percent of identical sequences. That is exactly a parent-child kind of result,” she explained. “I didn’t add it to the report without consulting with you.”

Shepard felt a slight tingling on the back of his neck and noted that the room was starting to become stuffy. He had to ask EDI if there was a problem with the ventilation systems on the ship. And also ask her to check the air conditioning units, because it was possible they were set on too low of a temperature, because he couldn’t miss the chilly sensation currently going through his entire body.

The more rational part of his brain meanwhile was going through the events of five or six years ago, trying desperately to remember what he was doing during that time. That period covered exactly the period between one year prior his assignment to the _Normandy_ and a year after it. And, even if Shepard had never suffered from lack of attention, that was exactly two years of his life when he had no-one. There had been a girl some time before that, whom he didn’t exactly date, but was meeting in an intimate manner from time to time, but he had seen her a few times after that and was sure she wasn’t pregnant.  

“I… that is not possible,” he finally shook his head. Then, after another moment of silent contemplation asked: “so, the test said that a girl, whom I accidentally met on the street, and who is, for still unknown reasons, connected to Cerberus, is my kid?”

“There still can be a possibility for a coincidence, a very small one, like one in two or three billion, that the child isn’t connected to you. You see, from the entire population of the galaxy there can be four or five people whose DNA test would come up with such a result, while having a zero relation to you, but --”

“It’s a hell of a coincidence,” Shepard concluded.  

His mind started to wander around other possibilities. Shepard knew that Cerberus had the means of cloning. He also knew that they in fact had his DNA samples -- he found it out the hard way. But why a child? And while they could create a clone absolutely identical to him, why make it appear as his descendant? What was the purpose of the entire thing?

Then Shepard started to wonder how he was going to tell Kaidan about this discovery. He could already imagine announcing the news to his husband, like ‘oh, and by the way, love, this kid I found, and who turned out to be a 6 years old human biotic capable of killing five men like no big deal, I’m her actual daddy! How cool is that?’ Sheppard shuddered at the thought.

He rubbed his chin, pondering that maybe there had been a moment where he simply got very drunk and hooked up with someone. That was so messed up, even for his standards. Right. The Great Commander Shepard, Savior of the Galaxy. The only man in the entire universe who could possibly consider finding out that six years ago he accidentally impregnated someone while being impaired by alcohol as a good thing in comparison to the alternatives.

Shepard opened his mouth to say something else, to maybe ask her to run the test again, just in case it was a mistake, but his omni-tool signaled, telling him that it had been half an hour since he last spoken to the landing party.

He reset the timer on the device and turned back to the doctor, “umm, I’m really sorry about that, but could you please not mention this in any reports, at least until the landing party returns from Horizon?” he asked.

Doctor Sonars sighed crossing her arms on her chest, then simply nodded.

Shepard thanked Sonars and walked out the medical bay. He went straight to the the comm room, without a single stop on his way. He entered the room and leaned on the metal railing next to the holographic projector, trying to catch his breath. The commander had been finding himself in a difficult or emotionally compromised situation plenty of times in the past, but this one seemed like nothing he’d faced before.

Even the Reapers seemed like a lesser problem, because at least during the Reaper War, no matter how impossible it seemed at the time, he at least had an easy distinguishable enemy, could determine who to aim his gun at. Here he had no idea what to expect. He still didn’t know a thing about this girl, didn’t know where she came from and how it could have happened that the DNA test showed her as his own daughter.

Shepard clenched his fists around the metal railing until his knuckles became white. Then he took a deep breath. He desperately wanted to talk to Kaidan, but he knew that he couldn’t do it right now. He would have to wait until nightfall, when he could lock himself in the captain quarters and talk to the person, who maybe wasn’t the only one capable of understanding and comforting him, but the one whose comfort he needed the most.

The commander took a deep breath, waiting for the call from the landing party, but the call never came.


	12. Chapter 12

The passageway leading to the underground chamber was narrow and dark. Sometimes it was impossible to advance further into the tunnel without crouching down, sometimes on knees to squeeze between extrusions of the crystal formations growing out of the walls. What complicated things even further was the high humidity and the smell of mold, which was making it difficult to breathe.

After twenty minutes of moving forward, Vega reached for his pocked, extracting another signal booster and sticking it to one of the walls before checking the communicators. The connection wasn't perfect, but they had a steady signal, a possibility to send a distress call if things went sour.

"With every minute spent here, I'm starting to doubt more and more that this tunnel leads to a Cerberus base," Liara sighed. "I can’t imagine the scientists going through this every time they need to enter or exit the facility."

"Well, maybe they had another entrance and this shaft was used for something else, like ventilation system," Vega guessed, even if he was also starting to lose the hope of finding anything but a dead end.

"Or perhaps, it was simply a natural occurrence and the only thing we will find in the end will be some sort of a cave," Javik supported. "And the traces of metal found by the probe can be explained by a natural mineral vein."

"Still an optimist, I can see," Vega shook his head.

"Comes with the profession," Javik replied with a note of sarcasm.

"Hey, finding a mineral vein _and_ a prothean sense of humor, that's a great mission outcome on its own," the major chuckled.

It was nearly the time for the first report to the surface, when the three of them finally reached an opening at the end of the tunnel. Vega looked around illuminating the darkness of the underground chamber with the flashlight on his rifle, but couldn't see anything but stone walls and ceiling covered in crystals, growing out of accumulations of stalactites. The walls of the cave were made of porous rock speckled with something which reminded glitter, making every surface of the cave sparkle reflecting the rays of the flashlights. In any other circumstances Vega would spare some time to admire it, but a picturesque scenery wasn't something they came here for.

"Nothing of value in here," he groaned, scanning one of the crystals he could reach. It was simple quartz, a pretty cheap mineral it was possible to find on nearly every garden-type planet.

"It's not exactly the truth," Liara disagreed looking over the readings on her omni-tool. "There is something metal further in this cave, and by the look of it, it's not a mineral vein."

Vega checked the time again, noting that they had five more minutes before the scheduled report. He reached for another signal booster activating it and sticking it to the wall before moving further into the chamber, but the moment he stepped a few meters away from it, the signal was lost. He hummed thoughtfully, returning to the device and noting the signal appearing again. “If I had to guess, whatever it is you’re picking on the sensors blocks communications,” he said.

“Should we signal the _Normandy_ now, or quickly explore the surrounding area and return to this spot?” Liara inquired. The asari seemed cautious in her intonation, but Vega couldn’t miss the excitement of exploration reading in her voice.

It wasn’t a tough choice to make, because what they’d seen so far didn’t look dangerous. Besides them and usual specter of bacteria common in caves, there wasn’t any other life signatures around. The cave itself was stable, so they didn’t need to worry about possible collapses. "All right," he nodded moving in the direction Liara pointed, "let's sweep the area," he said, “but we aren’t going too far and if anyone see something unusual, we return to this spot.”

They moved further, carefully watching their surroundings. It was very quiet here and every step echoed through the chamber, making it difficult to understand which direction the sound was coming from. Among their footsteps it was also possible to hear a sound of water dripping into a pool coming from somewhere deeper in the cave.

The side of the chamber Liara received the readings from, didn't look different from the rest of the place. It was the same exact stone formation, glistening slightly every time it was hit by a source of light. Still, there was something different about it, like it was smoother than the rest of the cavern walls, perhaps even unnaturally smooth. In attempt to examine the wall better, Vega moved closer, placing a hand on its surface.

"What the," he mumbled quietly, watching the layer of dust and soil fall from the wall, as if it was very old and very cheap concrete.

Beneath the layer it was possible to see some sort of markings painted on a metal surface.

Liara meanwhile noticed what he was doing and started to scrub the layer of the frail soil from another section of the wall. "This is incredible," she whispered in a mesmerized tone.

The concrete-like substance was falling to the ground revealing images, painted on a smooth metal surface, like old paintings left by primitive men in an earlier stage of evolution. The paint looked old, cracked and flaked, and sometimes entire portions of it were peeled away, but still it was possible to see the entire picture, understand its subject matter.

The image was depicting around a dozen of humanoids with angular bodies, impossibly long limbs and necks, kneeling from both sides of a giant blue sphere, like in some sort of a ritual. Underneath the sphere stood another figure, with its hands raised up like it was trying to reach it. Threads of blue flame were expanding from its palms, spreading around the figure, enveloping it like a bonfire. Vega didn't have any problems realizing that the figure was representing a biotic.

"Those images are thousands of years old," Liara whispered in awe. "Perhaps, even older." She moved away from the wall, activating her omni-tool and scanning the paintings. Most of them were still hidden beneath the layer of plaster substance, but the omni-tool's scanners were able to see through it recording it for later, when they would have time to analyze the readings.

"They are older, " Javik said shaking his head and stepping closer. When he was close enough to touch the wall, he closed his eyes, placing the palm of his hand on its surface. "They came from a cycle before the Prothean civilization, many cycles before.”

"But is it even possible?" Liara asked shaking her head. "Horizon is too young. Nothing could have lived here so long ago."

"Indeed," Javik agreed. "This planet was nothing but an inhabitable rock in my cycle, but..." he paused moving his fingers along the blue flames coming out the biotic’s hands. “Fear, determination, adoration. The people portrayed here worshiped the figure in the middle, believed this figure could bring salvation.”

"Classy,” Vega hummed, nodding, "but meanwhile, we still have no idea if it was," he weaved his hand  vaguely at the wall, "this, what attracted Cerberus' attention, because so far this looks nothing but a dead end to me. Come on, we need to return back," he gestured then to follow him as he started to turn around.

He didn't have time to make even two steps when the ground under his feet started to shake, first barely and then more and more violently. The entire cavern seemed to come to life that moment, filling the air with tremors and sounds of clattering glass and stone. A rather loud cracking sound came from behind Vega's back, forcing his attention back to the wall.

The metal and plaster surface, which was almost unnaturally smooth only a moment ago was now covered in rather large cracks, spreading around the entire wall like a spider web. A faint yellow light was coming from behind them, almost unnoticeable at the first glance, but becoming brighter with every moment..

"What is happening?" Liara shouted, trying to outspeak the quakes.

Vega opened his mouth to shout back that he had no idea, and that they needed to get back to the signal booster location, but a rather large tremor almost knocked him off his feet. Fortunately, he managed to regain his balance in time, preventing himself from falling face down into the dirt of the cavern floor.

The cracks on the wall, meanwhile, became even brighter, before the wall itself started to move. It split up into five sections, and each of the sections started to extract itself into a different part of the wall.

"Look out!" Javik yelled, turning Vega's attention away from the new passage.

The prothean's hand was raised, pointing somewhere up. Vega followed the direction of the hand, "oh, shit," he muttered, seeing several crystal stalactites hanging above their heads tremble dangerously, before another cracking sound tore the air of the cave and the crystal-covered pillars started to fall down.

"Move!" he shouted, jumping towards both of his squadmates, pushing them out of the range of the incoming projectiles, falling in a pile to the floor.

The stalactites landed behind them, smashing into smaller pieces, bombarding the kinetic barriers of their armor. Vega only had time to register their escape route being blocked, before the ground shook again, this time sending the entire quartz formation down from the ceiling.

"Move, move, move!" Vega commanded pushing himself from the ground, but his leg slipped on crumbled rock and he ended back on the floor.

A pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulders and started to drag him, while a shield of blue energy appeared above his head. Quickly, he looked around and saw Javik in an uncomfortable hunkered position, trying to drag him into the brighter lit opening, while Liara was half laying on her back beside him, holding her hands above her head to maintain a biotic barrier, which was reflecting the falling chunks of rock.

Vega groaned and pushed himself up again, grabbing Liara around her chest with one hand, while using the second for supporting both of their weights, starting to drag them both towards the opened chamber, while at the same time, pushing Javik forward with his shoulder. Somehow, between the three of them, they managed to reach the opening just in time, merely a second before the biggest piece of the cave ceiling landed on the spot they were laying only a second ago.

"That was a close one," the major exhaled, trying to catch his breath.

"And now it also seems we are trapped," Javik commented looking back.

After a moment of collecting himself, Vega was able to stand fully. He turned his head back to the passageway, seeing the entire structure of the cave had fallen, cutting them off from the direction they came. "Looks like we will have to find another way out," he sighed turning to appraise their current surroundings.

It was a large room shaped like a dome and made entirely of metal. Five giant statues were surrounding the dome, built into its walls like the figures were a part of it. The figures looked humanoid, but it wasn't a race Vega had ever seen before. Similar to the one on the paintings, they were tall, with unproportionally long limbs. In-between the statues it was possible to see images painted on the walls, painted in a manner of the ones they saw outside.

"This... is incredible," Liara whispered looking around.

And it really was. Whatever this place was supposed to be, it looked grand, almost out of this world, similar to no civilization ever discovered in the Universe. It also looked like someone was trying to study the chamber; there were several working tables and lamps which seemingly didn't belong with the general decor, coming from the current century. On one of those tables was a terminal still on, glowing faintly with orange light.

"I wonder what is powering this place," Vega asked walking towards the terminal and examining the power cord running down the floor and disappearing somewhere in a pitch-dark tunnel which seemed to be the only exit from this place.

"It seems like this tunnel suppose to accommodate means of transportation," Javik said pointing on a metal track running in the center of the tunnel's floor. It looked like a monorail.

"All right, let's see if we can summon us a train," Vega nodded reaching for the terminal.

***

Neith was sitting on the Kodiak ramp with her leg stretched over the tall horizonian grass, eating a fourth candy bar. The candy bars had fewer calories and, as surprising as it could sound, less sugar than a standard biotic protein bar, but at least it tasted better. Plus, it still was enough to replenish the energy she used while scanning the area.

The private watched the grass rolling in the wind, like it was an endless sea of green. The white clouds above the hills were slowly swimming by, changing their shapes. The landscape seemed so peaceful, that it was easy to forget that they were on a mission.

The private watched a small bug that reminded her of a weird mix of a caterpillar and an armadillo climb inside the Kodiak. She carefully kicked it out the shuttle with a gauntleted finger, wondering about how much time it would take for this bug to evolve into anything else. Horizon was still in the stage of development similar to the earthen Cambrian age, with fauna consistent of nothing else but very primitive sea animals and bugs which climbed out of the local oceans not so long ago. Neith wondered if Horizon were still able to evolve intelligent life forms and, if it was the case, would they live alongside humans who populated this planet, using it as an agricultural colony.

"Something isn't right," Cortez sighed looking at the clock, "the away team should have contacted us by now. I'll try to hail them," he said activating the comm in the shuttle. "Vega, come in now," he called, but there wasn't anything on the other end, but static.

Neith listened to the lieutenant’s attempts to contact the away team, feeling fear settling in her. It was her very first assignment outside of training facilities and a mere thought about losing someone was making her tremble. Only a moment later she realized that it wasn't she who was shaking, but the ground underneath the shuttle. It was impossible to feel it inside the Kodiak, and the only reason why the private noticed it, was because her legs were still connected to the ground.

Neith turned to Garrus and Cortez who were now engaged in a conversation with the commander.

"I highly doubt that another strike team is what we need," Garrus said. "I can't see how a bunch of soldiers can sort it out. Plus, we still don't know if the contact with the team was lost due to enemy activity, it could have been signal loss."

"What Garrus is suggesting is highly probable," EDI agreed, "it seems that the metal shell installed under the ground blocks any sort of signal. The alpha team could have simply found the entrance under the shell and was cut off from any link to the surface."

"Excuse me," Neith called out standing up and walking towards the pilot section of the shuttle.

The dizziness and the nausea she had previously disappeared and now she felt absolutely perfect. She even had removed both of the patches on her wrists, because she felt she no longer needed them. The third patch was still stuck to her body, but she couldn't reach it without removing her armor.

"And what do you propose we should do?" Shepard replied, "I mean we could wait another half an hour in case they will manage to find an escape route, but then," he paused clearly unsure, "I could come down and --"

"I don't think it's a good idea," Garrus interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Garrus," Shepard agreed with a sigh, "I'm not that stupid to jeopardize the mission simply because I’m missing some action. I know my limits," the commander paused, like he was contemplating something.

"Excuse me!" Neith called again, louder this time. The two other people present in the shuttle turned their heads. "There was an earthquake outside," she explained quickly. "A very small one, but I'm afraid that it could have caused problems to our away team."

For a second everyone was silent looking at the private. "Damn it!" Shepard groaned through the comm. "To the tunnel entrance, now!" he commanded.

"On our way," Garrus responded turning on his heel and jumping out of the Kodiak followed by the private.

The rock formation hiding the secret entrance was intact, but the entrance to the cave was no longer there, completely collapsed.

"No, no, no!" Neith pleaded dropping to her knees and activating the biotic field, starting to probe the ground. "The tunnel collapsed, but I can feel more open space further," she informed, before standing up and moving towards the place with the open area she sensed. "The metal barrier, I can't feel anything beyond it." She informed still probing the ground.

"Don't worry, they are too tough to perish in some cave collapse," Garrus reassured. "We will get them out."

Neith nodded, still feeling worried and continued to search the perimeter. The metal construction under the ground was enormous, but no matter how much Neith tried, it was impossible to get through it. But there was something else she could feel.

"Commander Shepard," she called through the communicator, "there is some sort of a metal construction underground and there is a tunnel leading North. A really long one. Is there anything on the map in that direction?" She asked.

"EDI?" the commander called.

"Checking," the AI replied, "the only notable point of interest further North is a human colony. It was mostly abandoned for some period of time, after the Collectors abducted the third of its population, but after the relays and buoys were restored, there was a sudden spike in the growth of its population. One of the main points of interests in the town are four GARDIAN type turrets, issued by the System Alliance in 2185 to secure the colony from the Collector's threat. Right now there are around six thousand people living there and it is considered one of the biggest farm towns outside the three major cities."

"Thank you EDI, that's enough," Shepard interrupted, and Neith could hear a note of anger mixed with something deeper, like guilt or sadness in the commander's voice, "I think it's time for us to go and talk to the colonists," he concluded.


	13. Chapter 13

"I don't think it's a good idea," Garrus commented, his eyes following the movement of Shepard's hand fastening a pistol to his belt.

Knowing the turian for so long, Shepard could see, that Garrus' words didn't match with his emotions. Of course, there was a note of disapproval reading in his expression, a deep concern for Shepard's safety, but it was mixed with a sort of irritability . No-matter how responsible Garrus wanted to appear at the moment, it was easy to tell he missed the action, perhaps even envied Shepard a little.

"It's a terrible idea," Shepard agreed with a sigh, "but who could've guessed we'd have to deal with an entire colony of xenophobes and Alliance haters? Again," he added, starting to feel more and more frustrated, the longer he thought about it.

Less than half an hour earlier, Shepard had talked to the leader of the colony, Governor Nover, who refused to provide them any support until the commander agreed to visit the colony personally. He insisted on leaving members of other species on board, because, as he explained, it would be 'bad for the colony's morale', as 'those people suffered enough in the past'.

The governor also tried his best at demanding Shepard come completely unarmored and unarmed, but the commander refused to yield. In the end, they managed to come to a compromise, negotiating an allowance to carry light weapons only. The arrangement didn't make Shepard happy, but it was better than any alternative.

"This is ridiculous," Neith whispered shaking her head, "I mean, I understand, there are some humans in the Galaxy, who don't particularly trust other species, but showing such a blunt disrespect, especially after the war... that is beyond me."

Horizon wasn't an especially large planet, but its overall climate condition made it perfect for agricultural development. There were several dozens settlements with a total population over million people. While some of the biggest settlements were hit very hard during the collector's attacks, the planet was left almost untouched during the war, as most of the reapers in the area had been concentrating on Cerberus. By the time they regrouped to start harvesting the colonists, the Crucible had already been mobilized and sent to the Sol system and the reapers had to retreat.

"Honestly, I don’t really care about their xenophobic tendencies. You can’t make everyone in the Galaxy like you," Garrus said, "even if there is so much to like" he added with a grin as one of his talons moved across his scarred jawline to underline his point. His expression sobered and he added: "what really bothers me, is that the whole situation particularly screams 'a Cerberus trap', and I can't go down to watch your back."

"I know," Shepard agreed, "but what choice do we have? This colony is our only chance to both rescue our ground team and find leads on Cerberus activities. Plus, we scanned the area from orbit and besides the GARDIAN canons, there was no sign of heavy weaponry. A bunch of agriculture related machinery, maybe a few colonists have personal weapons, but nothing Cerberus grade."

It was true. Shepard took a lot of measures to reassure their safety, but when he spoke  them out loud, he couldn't miss how weak they sounded. It felt like he was mostly trying to reassure himself than anyone else.

"Besides GARDIAN canons," Garrus repeated Shepard's own word, shaking his head.

"They won't be able to use them on ground targets and the _Normandy_ is out of their range. Besides, shooting us down would be like a declaration of war against the Alliance. They may be a pain in the ass to deal with, but no-one is that stupid," Shepard shrugged. So far it was the only statement he truly believed in.

"Even if the colonists don't have weapons and the canons are no threat to us, we still can't get through this metal layer underground," Neith intervened, "who knows what can be in there."

The private stood a little behind the two of them. She looked better than she had in the morning, and was back in her uniform.

Next to her a small squad of marines was preparing to accompany Shepard down to the surface. They were going through inventory, checking their equipment, and each of their movements was precise and calculated, ingrained into them by years of service.

With her hands stuffed into the pockets of her pants and her posture relaxed, Neith looked absolutely out of place next to those marines, like she caught a ride on a wrong ship. Yet, her eyes were full of harsh determination, which told Shepard that even though she lacked experience and discipline, she knew perfectly where she was and what she was doing.

Kaidan had told him that much, but only now could Shepard see it for himself.

"I'm aware of it," Shepard nodded, "but we all have training and our barriers are up even without the armor. If it comes to it, all of us can take a few hits and walk away."

"You know what I fear the most?" Garrus asked quietly, for only Shepard to hear, "Kaidan is going to murder both of us, even if you walk away," he said in a tone which indicated it as a joke, "so it's not like it matters much."

Shepard wasn’t in the mood to joke, but he couldn't suppress a small smile, "don't worry, I'm ready to take one for the team on this one," he replied in the same hushed manner.

The elevator door opened and Specialist Traynor appeared in the shuttle bay. She looked around the area, until her eyes stopped on the commander. Stepping out of the elevator car, she moved towards Shepard. "Commander, I would like to ask for permission to accompany you to the surface," she said.

Her gaze then moved to the side and stopped somewhere behind Shepard's back, where he knew  Private Neith stood. A coy smile appeared on Traynor's face, making the commander almost roll his eyes.

"Any particular reason you want to join us?" Shepard inquired, making half a step to his left and with that blocking Traynor's line of sight on the blond private.

The communication specialist blinked focusing her gaze back on the commander's face. "Oh," she chuckled nervously, "sorry, I just..." she shook her head then, "you see, sir, my parents still live in this colony and there might be other people who know me."

"Ok, Traynor, it's nice," Shepard replied crossing his arms over his chest, "but we are not exactly on a vacation here," he reminded.

"Of course we are not, sir," Traynor agreed, "but you do need the information. And what is a better source of information than word of mouth? Rumors, tell-tales, that sort of stuff. And while they might not agree to cooperate with you, a familiar face can seem to be more trustworthy in their eyes."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. The young communication specialist had never stopped surprising  the commander with her sharp mind. "Good thinking, Traynor," he nodded, "but understand, that it might turn out to be dangerous."

"I do, sir," Traynor replied with a nod, "and I promise, that at any sign of trouble, I will duck and hide," she smirked, "you might be surprised how good I'm at it."

***

The sight of the colony brought many memories which Shepard desperately hoped to never recollect. Most of them were about people abducted by the collectors almost three years ago. Even if time helped him to get over the guilt he used to feel when he failed to save so many lives, sometimes he still saw their frozen in terror faces in nightmares.

He remembered his little standoff with Kaidan that happened here, remembered the pain he could read the other man's eyes, and the betrayal. Shepard remembered every word said that day, every accusation, the feeling of desperation as he thought he would never be forgiven by the man he cared about even then. And later at night on the ship, Shepard distantly remembered telling someone how he finally figured he loved Kaidan, but the identity of that mystery person was forever lost in a haze of alcoholic intoxication.

And even now, with the way everything turned out, when he was given a chance to not only be forgiven and asked for forgiveness, but found out how the other man's skin felt under his fingertips and how his lips tasted, those memories still chilled him to the core.

He wondered why out of all the settlements on the planet it had to be this one.

Shepard shook his head, trying to stop the flood of his own thoughts. Everything that had happened here was in the past and there it had to stay. He had work to do, had to resolve the situation with the governor, and had to find his missing team, so he forced his attention back to the surroundings.

Most of the settlement looked almost exactly like any other human agricultural colony, made of the standard building blocks, which were easy to transport and fast to construct. At the same time, there were many more permanent buildings closer to the center, some of them were starting to rise up to five floors tall.

It was greener too. Last time Shepard visited the colony was in the peak of the hottest month of the year, when most of the free growing plants in the area were sunburn and dry. Now it looked like they had a monsoon  season only recently, bringing life back to the native flora. The fields around the settlements were green and well tended, but the crops still looked young. Dozens of tractors and trucks were working on the fields even now, moving around the endless plains of fertile ground.

In general, nothing in the surroundings looked out of place.

Their little team of six, which consisted of Shepard himself, Private Neith, Specialist Traynor and three additional soldiers from the crew, was met by four colonists. Dressed in simple civilian clothing, they looked neither like soldiers, nor Cerberus agents, but Shepard couldn't miss that each of them had a pistol fastened to the side of their belts. Even though they smiled politely, Shepard clearly could read distrust in their eyes.

While theoretically being under the System Alliance's jurisdiction* and having vast trade treaties with the human faction, their relationship had always been shaky. With the war leaving most of Earth in ruins and the governing structure weakened, the Alliance didn't have an opportunity to send their delegations to the colony, making the situation even worse. Shepard worried that any sort of conflict between the colonists and his crew could become the last straw and end up with the planet declaring full sovereignty. At the current state of the Alliance government and military structure, they would not be able to respond, not to mention that this attitude was giving Cerberus a good opening for convincing people living here to join their cause.

Yet, Shepard highly doubted that the colonists would refuse to cooperate completely, at least because starting troubles with soldiers that descended from the most advanced and recognizable ship in the Galaxy, which could easily come into a shooting range without appearing on any scanners, should be considered unwise. It was a sort of a cold war tactic, to demonstrate as much power as was possible, without actually using it in a hope that another side would get too frightened to act.

Shepard wondered if it was what Hackett had in mind when he'd given him back the Normandy.

"Sam?" A woman in the team greeting them suddenly exclaimed. She was young, approximately Traynor's age, a little on a heavy side, but still very attractive with bright green eyes and shoulder-length chestnut hair. "Is that really you?" she smiled walking towards Traynor, embracing her, "haven’t seen you in ages!"

"Hey, Becky!" Traynor replied returning the embrace and kissing the other girl's cheek. "It's been like an entire decade," she agreed, "I almost didn't recognize you."

"I heard you were serving on the _Normandy_ , but couldn't imagine they would allow you to come down here," the girl Traynor referred as Becky shook her head.  Then she got herself together turning more serious. "Oh, I apologize. You must be on a mission of some sort."

Traynor looked at the commander, giving him a lopsided smile and a barely noticeable wink. Shepard realized that now it was his cue.

"Actually, I wanted our comm specialist to go on a short shore leave," he said. It was a lie, but it was Traynor's idea, so he didn't feel too sorry, "I thought that it would be a good opportunity for her to visit the family."

Becky looked a bit surprised to hear those words, but then smiled to the commander and this time Shepard was sure that the smile was sincere. He made a mental note to find a way to thank Traynor, as the girl indeed was a life-saver.

"Oh, I apologize for the lack of my manners," Becky said, stepping to the commander and offering him a hand. "My name is Rebecca Valenski, lead botanist of in the colony, and you must be Commander Shepard."

"Pleasure to meet you, Rebecca," Shepard nodded, shaking her hand.

***

The governor wasn't ready to meet them for the next hour and a half. Shepard felt that it was suspicious, because if he had anything to hide, it was giving him just enough time to do so. Still, the commander couldn't push the issue and demand the meeting right away, as it could further impair the, already tainted in the colonists' eyes, Alliance reputation.  

To pass the time, their little team was offered a tour around the colony.

Horizon was never on the list of top touristic destinations. There was nothing to look at, but seemingly endless fields around the settlement and uncountable by unaided eye number of private houses, all of them looking almost the same.

Rebecca, who was unaccustomed to military visitors in the settlement, treated his team like people who came to negotiate trade and not soldiers on a mission. Shepard's own knowledge on the subject of agricultural development and trade wasn’t nonexistent, but it wasn't even nearly enough to understand the majority of topics brought up during the tour.** Most of his replies concluded in polite smiles and nods, which altogether made the time spent in the settlement even more miserable.

It didn't help the situation that Shepard's mind kept switching to his lost team. According to Neith, the underground facilities seemed rather large and even if the access to air was cut off, there should have been enough oxygen to sustain three people for at least a full day if not more. Afterwards, the combat hardsuits of all three of his missing squad members could provide them with another few hours, if used carefully.

Still, Shepard had no idea what else was underground. The amount of oxygen they had wasn't going to matter it the facility was overrun by Cerberus, who could capture them or even worse, outright kill them. The place could also be empty but booby-trapped.

Shepard shook his head, trying to banish the negative thoughts. His team was build out of the finest people the Galaxy had to offer. Together they managed to take down the Reapers, and he trusted each of them to have his back, so doubting their abilities to survive now was irrational.

By the time his attention switched back to the young botanist, their tour around the settlement was almost over. As the final point of interest, she brought their team to a research facility on the edge of the colony.

The building was rather large, it had several rooms filled with equipment that at first glance matched the quality of the best research laboratories in Alliance space. It had two large greenhouses attached to the main building, all of them contained plant species Shepard had difficulties naming. At the same time the facility was empty. Some of the equipment was covered in plastic sheeting, unused. Many computer terminals were shut down and by the layer of dust on the tables around them, it was easy to tell that no-one used them in quite a while.

"Not many people are working here," Shepard commented.

Rebecca followed the commander's gaze to the unoccupied stations and sighed, "the collectors took most of our scientists," she said, "we got a lot of refugees when the war with the reapers started and many decided to stay afterwards, so there is no lack of manpower to tend the fields. Unfortunately, biologists were not among the popular professions for any of them."

A pang of guilt sparked through Shepard. He wondered if he would have been able to save more people if he arrived just a few hours earlier, "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Rebecca shook her head and offered Shepard a weak smile, "it is a... sore topic for me," she confessed, "but I also understand it could have been much worse if you hadn't shown up. Strange, I didn't even think of thanking you at first. I wouldn't even be here if not for you, Commander," she said, her tone filled with regret.

Shepard didn't tell her about his own doubts, he didn't know her that well. He didn't accept her gratitude either, because he felt he didn't deserve it, even if logically he understood that he did his best, "I wish none of that would ever happened to you," he said instead.

Rebecca fell silent for a moment, but then shook her head, "actually, I wanted to show you something," she said, "off the record."

With that she led them into a different area of the facility. There, on a metal table that occupied almost half of the room, stood dozens of pots filled with soil. A row of luminescent lamps above the table was illuminating green sprouts of plants, which grew out of the pots.

"Valenski Wheat," Rebecca announced, pride clear in her intonation, "the greatest work of my deceased husband."

"What is that so special about it?" Shepard inquired.

"Its seeds were genetically modified to be susceptible to element zero exposure," the botanist started to explain, "it was a very challenging task to do it in a way the wheat would not have side effects on people consuming it. Exposed even to a slightest amount of element zero, it can grow almost three times as fast as normal."

Shepard looked at the pots surprised. Even he could understand the implications of creating a breed like that, especially after Earth was demolished by the war and hundreds of people were left without housing or provisions. "And are you absolutely sure it is safe for consumption?" he asked.

"Being exposed to Eezo, the grain show signs of radiation, yes," Rebecca noded, "but the amount of radiation from consuming the wheat is analogous to spending an hour next to any engine capable of producing mass effect fields. It is way below the level categorized as safe by the Alliance Healthcare Department. I can show you the specifications."

With those words she reached for a table drawer. There was a fingerprint scanner on the locker mechanism and as soon as Rebecca touched it, the lock clicked open. She extracted a datapad from the drawer and presented it to Shepard.

The specifications of the wheat was something Shepard could work with. There were some too long words, the meaning of which he wasn't sure about, but at the same time everything was presented in neat columns with a lot of numbers. Numbers were something Shepard understood well.

"Rebecca," Shepard addressed the botanist after he finished examining the data-pad "do you know how much this research can help Earth right now?"

Rebecca sighed, averting her eyes, her expression changing into haunted one yet again, "We had a lot of refugees who joined us," she said, "most of them moved in when the war only started. But there are some who saw terrible things, who told stories about their homes being destroyed. Is it really so bad back there?" she asked.

"Yeah," the commander nodded with a sigh, "we had to feed the united fleet who didn't have a chance to escape the Sol System, for around half a year. There wasn't much left to replenish the fields, so there are a lot of hungry people right now."

Shepard started to feel guilty again. His status opened him an access to the best food supply. He was eating steaks while the rest of the world was trying to survive on dry rations. Yet, he knew that even if he gave away what was offered to him, even if he found a way to distribute all of the supplies available in the center of Vancouver to those who needed it, it was going to be no more than a drop in an ocean. That is why he was here now, trying to make a difference on a bigger scale.

Rebecca turned her head away, looking at the row of pots. "We have three times more grain that we need right now, that will be enough to plant many fields," she said thoughtfully. Then her intonation changed into a more apologetic, "I would love to help you, but it first was supposed to be distributed to the other settlements on Horizon. You need it more though, so try talking to mr. Nover about it."

That put Shepard into an interesting situation. It looked like his chance to provide Earth with another consignment of provisions was in the hands of a man who could possibly be a Cerberus puppet. The commander didn't have enough fingers on his hands to count the ways it could go wrong, "I will see how it will go," he said.

"Speaking of which," Rebecca looked at the clock, "I think it is the time for you to go and meet him."

***

Daniel Nover, the leader of the colony, was a man in his late forties with his head nearly bald and a round stomach propping against the edge of the tabletop making it look uncomfortable to sit.

He was listening to Shepard's explanation of the situation, from time to time wiping the sweat from his face with a white handkerchief, even it wasn't that hot. His small nearly black eyes were skimming around the expensively furnished office, like he was expecting someone to jump out from behind the bookshelves, or a large pot plant in the corner of the office at any moment.

"You do understand how impossible it sounds, Commander?" he stated after Shepard finished his explanation, "a secret base underneath our colony? This settlement is almost ten years old and I've been around for the entire time. I can assure you, that I would've known about it, if it was true."

Shepard expected a response like that. He wasn't sure if Nover was lying or not, but suspected that even if the other man knew about what was underneath his settlement, he wouldn't talk about it.

"Plus, do you really think that we could dig a giant bunker under the colony without the Alliance noticing it?" Nover continued, his hand drawing a circle in the air.

"I've never said that it was your people who built it," Shepard corrected, "we located a tunnel leading towards the settlement South of here. It is possible that someone else dug it under you."

Nover's lips pursed into a thin line, his eyes rolling, "this is even more ridiculous," he said leaning backwards on his chair.

Shepard started to feel like the conversation with the governor was coming to a dead end. The man in front of him was radiating impatience, his short fingers starting to drum on the surface of the table. He looked Shepard down, like the commander wasn't even worth his time and he couldn't wait for him to get out from his office.

Shepard wanted to reach over and slap Nover's hand to stop the drumming.

"Well, in that case why wouldn't you simply allow us to search?" Shepard asked trying not to make his irritation shown.

"I'm afraid it would be impossible," Nover replied shaking his head.

There was a slight nervous twitch Shepard felt somewhere alongside his right hand, but he ignored it. He took one deep breath, before sliding his chair closer to the governor's desk and leaning in. "The colony is still under the Alliance jurisdiction," he said as calmly as he could, "I can simply contact headquarters and have a search warrant in my hand in half an hour."

Nover smiled, leaning forward, so both of their heads were almost on the same level. He stared Shepard in the eyes across the desk, his expression challenging, "Oh, I know, Commander," he said accenting the last word in a mocking manner, "I also see you're no diplomat. You can't understand what I'm trying to prevent here. Most of people at the colony blame the Alliance for the collector attacks, for installing those turrets. Forcing them to allow you search their houses would be the worst mistake."

“Or you're simply afraid of what we’ll find down there,” Shepard replied, his intonation turning sharp.

At that statement the governor actually laughed, “I don’t give a shake of a rat’s ass, because I don’t believe there is something below us,” he said, “if you really want to investigate a so-called bunker, go to the tunnel you mentioned, dig a hole there. You will be able to find the truth and the colonists will not be disturbed.”

"The delivery of tech, capable to dig a hole into the tunnel will take weeks,” Shepard protested.

“I’m sure you can manage,” Nover shrugged indifferently. He started to stand up from his chair, the movement taking too much time and effort even for someone of his build, “and, as a sign of my full cooperation," he spoke in the process, "I will organize the delivery of that wheat our labs synthesized. I heard you were interested in it."

“I have three people trapped down there," Shepard insisted, "they can die by the time we finish drilling."

Nover sighed as he finally managed to assume an upright position, locking his hands behind his back. "A colony which can provide Earth a chance to save thousands of hungry families, or three people," he said, "what would you choose, Commander?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * Codex entry says that Horizon is a 'typical Terminus colony', but it is located on the border of System Alliance space and Attican Traverse, which is not even close enough to Terminus to be raided. It never says that it's a free colony either and the Alliance sure put a lot of effort in protecting it. I might be mistaken, but this is how I see it.  
> ** Even if my Shepard was 100% default (Earthborn, Sole Survivor), I did everything to not include his background in the novel. The fact he was not knowledgeable in topics of agriculture, might seem like I openly admitting him not being a Colonist. In reality, the colonist Shepard was abducted from his home when he was still a teenager, at the age he very likely had more interest in hanging out with friends than learning about agriculture.


	14. Chapter 14

The warrant was received after an additional hour of waiting, but once Shepard had the document on his hands, nothing was able to stop him from ransacking the entire place.

The decision to reject Nover's offer wasn't an easy one, but the price of accepting it was too high: not only Shepard was going to lose three members of his squad, but the vital intelligence on Cerberus' current activities too.

Another part of Shepard's decision laid in his certainty about the governor's guilt. If Shepard could prove it, Nover's career was going to end and the negotiation about the Valenski wheat could be continued with his successor. It was going to take more time to complete the negotiations, but in the end, Alliance was going to get everything they needed.

The territory of the colony was enormous, spread over the rocky hills for over three square kilometers. There were several hundreds of private houses, a few dozens of service and utility buildings and a few stores to top the list. Having the young biotic private on their team was helping a great deal, as Neith didn't even need to enter the buildings to look for secret passages, but even her assistance was not unlimited.

With each hour passing, Neith was starting to look more and more tired, spending too much energy on maintaining the biotic field. She had to take breaks at least every twenty minutes and by the end of the fourth hour, when even her candy bars couldn’t sustain her any longer, she had to drop off the searching team entirely.

By that time, the searching party hadn't even managed to go through a fourth of the settlement.

The situation didn't look good. Shepard didn't have enough people to speed up the process and he doubted he would have accomplished more even if he brought down the entire crew of the _Normandy_. With the current temp of their progression it was going to take another day to finish the search and Shepard was worried his squad members didn't have that much time.

The absolute lack of cooperation from the colonists' side was making the situation even more difficult. At the same time, their attitude was not what Shepard expected. According to the Governor Nover's warning, Shepard was supposed to face with a heavy resistance, but no-one seemed to be openly aggressive towards his team. Instead, people looked afraid of the soldiers, doing everything they could to get out of the commander's way.

There was something terribly wrong about them, about the entire place.

Shepard had only had time to think about it, when a slight glint coming from the direction of a side street attracted his attention. Something small flew out from the shadows between the building, hitting the commander on the hip. The unidentified object reached the kinetic barrier surrounding the commander, bouncing off of it and flying down to land on the ground by his feet.

Shepard reached down to pick the object up. It was a small ball, made of very light metal no bigger than a centimeter in diameter. According by the way the little projectile reached him, Shepard could only conclude it was used as ammunition for a slingshot. He rolled his eyes, annoyed by the thought about local children playing a prank. It wasn't as bad of a situation, considering they expected a heavier resistance, but it was unpleasant none the less.

Shepard looked up in the direction from which the ball came from trying to detect the position of the sniper. There was nothing, but a row of houses on the side of the street. Every window on the houses was closed and every sunscreen behind the glass of those windows was pulled down, which meant that whoever shot him was hiding between the buildings.

The commander looked closely at the narrow openings between the houses. There were two of them, close enough to Shepard to be the potential hiding spots for the prankster, but both of them were too dark to see into.

Another ‘bullet’ flew out from the direction of one of them, hitting Shepard's boot and he saw not a child, but Specialist Traynor appearing from the shadows. She pressed her index finger to her lips and gestured Shepard to follow, before disappearing again, leaving Shepard to stand in the middle of the street, looking at an empty spot.

Shepard looked around. Except for his squad of marines, who continued moving from house to house, peeking underneath them, looking for secret entrances, there was not a single person in the vicinity. Shepard pondered why Traynor didn't simply approach him, before his eyes settled on a possible answer. On the roofs of several houses Shepard saw little cameras watching the street. They were not directed at anyone in particular, they were not moving, but their mere existence and a high concentration on a single street was suspicious.

Shepard waited several minutes, trying to appear casual, before slowly walking in the direction of the small passage. It was a narrow opening and Shepard had to squeeze through to get on the other side. There, he found himself in an empty alleyway, filled mostly with big black containers for waste placed against the backs of the white walls of the houses.

The air here smelt like rotten food and a loud buzzing from alien insects was coming from the direction of each container.

"Damn it, Traynor," Shepard whispered, covering his nose with a palm of his hand as he reached his communications specialist, "any particular reason you invited me in such a romantic place?"

Traynor was standing behind one of the containers, also visibly uncomfortable with her surroundings. She wasn't dressed in the uniform, but changed into local clothing consisted of a beige shirt and gray pants. Her usually loose hair was gathered in two ponytails.

"Trust me, it wasn't my first choice," she sighed. Then she looked around as if trying to determine if anyone could listen to them here, "so, the mission of gathering an intel was a success," she saluted with a chuckle. She looked excited, speaking in a way that made the commander think it was a game for her, as if she watched too many spy vids and was now trying to reenact one.

"Traynor," Shepard sighed, shaking his head, "there is nothing funny here," he said seriously.

"Ugh, sorry," she nodded, her expression turning more serious, "you're right, there is too many weird things going on," she said. "It's seems suspicious to me how much surveillance is around the place. I wasn't born in this colony, but my parents moved here when I was ten and I've spent next eight years living in the settlement. Never before I saw so many cameras around."

Traynor was right about the surveillance. Shepard didn't notice it at first, before she lured him into a back alley, but when he thought about it, he started to remember how many cameras were watching over the settlement overall. Someone went to a great extend to find a way of monitoring the entire place.

"That's not all," the specialist continued meanwhile, "this colony has never been known for having top-edge technology. I mean, yeah, there had never been a deficit on agricultural machinery, but to save money they were buying vehicles at least five years old. Did you see those tractors on the field? Those are all models rolled from the assembly line right before the Reaper invasion, all running on the element zero cores. Of course, it is nothing like cores on the space ships, but each one of those coast a heavy amount of money. There is no way the colony could've afforded them on their own and no-one knows where the money came from either."

Shepard thought about Traynor's words. There were dozens of new machines working on the field, and adding up the price of each of them was turning into a large sum. No matter how hard he tried to rationalize the appearance of expensive machinery, the only explanation he could come up with was a sudden appearance of a reach sponsor. And the only reach sponsor who could afford it, keeping the entire deal under the table at the same time, was Cerberus.

"Do you think that supporting the colony with the high-end machinery could have been Cerberus' payment for keeping their underground base a secret?" Shepard asked.

"That was exactly my thought," Traynor nodded, "but there is something else which doesn't make sense. All these fancy field engines supposed to increase the amount of crop harvested, but instead the colonists are getting almost nothing out of it. They are nearly starving."

"Right," Shepard agreed, "that is more than weird. I wonder where the crop is going to."

It could be possible that Cerberus used the colony as a feeding ground, because no matter how much they were 'genetically improving' their troops, all of them still required food. But Cerberus must have had something else on the colonists, because a few expensive tractors wouldn't cover their cooperation, if the food gathered here didn't go to the people.

Like if Traynor was reading his mind, she asked: "Do you think Cerberus tricked those people somehow into providing them with supplies?"

"Yeah, but trick or not, they couldn't do it without having someone here to oversee it."

"Someone who doesn't really look all that poor and starving," the specialist agreed, "someone who has enough power over those people and at the same time, someone who was trying so hard to convince you not to search."

"But we still don't have enough evidence to accuse anyone." Shepard sighed. Governor Nover was practically wearing a sign on his head saying that he was working for Cerberus, but suspicion alone was not giving them a right to arrest the man.

"Speaking of which," Traynor said, "I also talked to Becky sometime after you left the lab, she was really afraid of speaking up, but she knows something, I can feel it."

"Do you know if she's still in the lab?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah, she should be," Traynor confirmed, "but if you will go right away, it might look suspicious. I don't want to endanger her."

***

The day cycle on Horizon lasted almost twice longer than one of Earth, which made it difficult to track the time by the local sun alone. The Iera star hadn’t moved much since they arrived to the planet surface and was still high in the sky, but when Shepard checked the watch on his omni-tool, he saw that almost eight hours had passed since their arrival to the colony.

After spending the entire day in worry for the lost away team, Shepard felt his patience starting to slowly slip from under his fingertips. He tried to wait longer before approaching Doctor Valenski, tried to act casual about it, but only fifteen minutes after finishing his conversation with Traynor, Shepard found himself striding towards the botanic laboratory.

He didn’t know for sure how he missed it the first time, but finding himself standing next to the building now, Shepard could clearly see at least two cameras aimed at the entrance, while the two more were overlooking the greenhouse. While it wasn’t unreasonable for a facility of that grade to have some surveillance, the amount of it made the entire building look more like a prison, than a research center.

Shepard was tired of playing games, he activated his omni-tool, wanting to simply shut the cameras down, but stopped himself the last moment. There were too many variables he didn’t take into a consideration, to many blank spots on the entire picture to know for sure what would happen if he would rush into the fight head first.

Every colonist in the settlement he came across was scared of the Alliance soldiers and it looked like Cerberus had something to keep them them in line. It was possible, that by deactivating the cameras, he would signal Cerberus how much he actually knew. He could endanger Valenski and he didn’t want it.

Shepard entered the lobby of the facility. It was a small, empty room with a single table standing next to one wall. From there he could see several additional cameras installed down the corridor leading through the laboratory, but the lobby itself was unoccupied and surveillance-free.

There were several leaflets about the lab laying on the table. Shepard picked one of them up and pretended to read it, turning his back to the cameras in the corridor, while starting to call his ship.

The response came almost instantaneously,  "yes, Commander?" he heard EDI’s voice.

Shepard didn’t have time to explain the situation. He wanted to finish the call as fast as he could, in case anyone watching him start to get curious why the silly leaflets with minimum text attracted so much of his attention, "can you hack yourself into the cameras at my location?" he asked as quietly as he could.

There was a short pause from EDI and Shepard could hear a little bit of static noise coming from his earpiece, "I’m in." the AI confirmed after a moment.

"Alright, I need you to do something for me."

***

Shepard knew that Doctor Valenski did not expect him to return to the lab. Even if Traynor wanted the biologist to talk to them, she decided to leave it to Shepard to convince her. The commander himself pondered about calling Valenski before his visit, but decided it was for the best to come unannounced.

The building of the laboratory looked abandoned even if the lights in the majority of the rooms were on. It was so quiet, that Shepard could hear the hum of every terminal, every his step echoed from the bare metal walls. Among those sounds, Shepard could hear something else, a faint whimpering noises coming from one of the furthest rooms of the facility. He couldn’t distinguish what it was at first and only when he almost reached the room, he realized that someone was crying there.

Carefully, Shepard peeked into the room and saw the biologist sitting at one of the tables, leaning on it's surface while clenching to a book, her shoulders trembled on each exhale. "Rebecca?" he called out quietly.

Hearing Shepard speak, she spun around on her chair, looking at the commander with fear, the wet streaks of tears were running down her cheeks.  Then she seemed to recognize Shepard and relaxed, "Commander," she said. Her voice trembled and she looked away, "I'm... I'm sorry, It's not the best time."

Shepard didn't want to intrude on her personal matters, but he needed to find out what the biologist knew. It was also obvious she needed help, and he thought that perhaps he could provide it. He walked further into the room and, spotting a box of paper napkins on one of the other tables, picked it up, offering it to Valenski.

"I'm sorry, Rebecca," he said, "I really wanted to talk to you. But if you need someone to listen to you first, I'm also here," he gestured on the book, she was holding.

Standing closer, Shepard could see that it was a photo album. The page it was opened on contained a single picture of a couple with a child. The woman on the picture, Shepard recognized as Velenski herself, while the man standing next to her, the commander assumed to be her late husband. Between them, held in two pairs of hands simultaneously, was a child no older than four or five months old. The picture was animated, looping a short, but important two second of a family life, of happiness which seemed to radiate from the couple's smiles.

Valenski reached for the offered box, picking one of the napkins. She wiped her tears shaking her head. "Why?" she asked nodding at the album, "why are you even interested in it?"

"Because you seem like a good person," Shepard replied. It was an honest answer, but it also was only one half of the truth. He knew that the explanation was enough to start a convincing argument, but if he wanted her to be honest, he needed to be honest too, "and also because without your assistance I won't be able to find three of my closest friends," he added.

Valenski was silent for a long time, her gaze not moving away from the picture. A small sad smile touched her lips as she placed her index finger on the photo, "he was the brightest man I knew, my husband," she said, so quietly that Shepard could barely hear it, "I've lost him two years ago, when the collectors hit our colony."

Shepard made another step closer to Valenski and placed his hand on her shoulder in gesture of condolence, "I'm sorry," he said.

She nodded. Her finger moved from the man's face to the face of the little child, "Karin," she continued, "she is three now. The only real treasure I have in my life." Her intonation changed then, a note of harshness appearing in her voice, "I'm not letting anyone to touch a single hair on her head," she said seriously.

The way she spoke made Shepard realize she indeed knew something wrong was going on, she knew her daughter might be in danger. "Do you think there is someone who could harm her?" he asked.

"I don't think," the botanist shook her head, "I know." She reached for the album once again, starting to scroll through the pages of the electronic book, until she stopped on one which depicted a group of people in white lab coats. "We used to have a personnel of fifteen," she said showing the picture to the commander, "ten of them were taken by the collectors. Several months later the governor assigned a group of three biologists to the lab, led by Doctor Banet --"

Shepard mind started to race fast as he heard the name. It was the same name Liara had found while trying to help him to look for the little girl taken from under their nose, "Banet?" he interrupted, "what the man looked like?"

Valenski looked at the commander a little confused, but then moved her finger to scroll through some more images. Next time she stopped, the digital photo album was showing an image of eight people. Among them, Shepard saw a thin, unhealthy looking man whom he recognized immediately, "do you know him?" Valenski asked.

"You can say that," Shepard replied angrily, before shaking his head, trying to calm himself down, "I'm sorry, I have an unpleasant history with this man. He," Shepard stumbled over the words. He couldn't tell her everything about their investigation, even if he'd wanted to, "he works for a known terrorist organization, I was sent to this colony to find him. He isn't a good man, Rebecca."

Valenski nodded once, "I sensed something off about him from the beginning," she said, "but I've never could put a finger what was wrong. He was a brilliant scientist though, was fascinated with my husband's research of Eezo enhanced wheat. He was the one who managed to finish the project. It were not good days for us, Commander, we still grieved for the people we lost, but finishing it was like a light of hope for us all.

"It didn't last," she continued, "soon the rest of my team started to disappear. It began exactly when we got the the first positive result from the experiments. People started to take vacations off the planet and never return, until it was only me and Josh, my lab partner, left," she pointed on another man on the picture, one who looked no older than twenty five, with ridiculously messy ginger hair, "I still keep in contact with Josh, but he doesn't want to return, too afraid."

The entire situation looked exactly like Cerberus' style of getting rid of loose ends. Even if Shepard wouldn't have seen Banet among the people in the photo album, he had enough clues to come to such a conclusion.  It was also understandable why Valenski was so scared about the safety of her and her daughter, because even if Banet was now off Horizon, Cerberus had their means to get to people.

“You know that I can stop them,” Shepard said, “Alliance can get you and your daughter under protection.”

For a second, Shepard could see another glint of fear when he mentioned Alliance, before Valenski averted her eyes yet again. She turned the album off, standing from the chair and moved to return it to one of the shelve, silent the entire time. When she returned back to the commander, he could see how uncertain she was. "Why are you even doing this?" she asked. "Is this colony such a great deal for the Alliance? Is it some sort of a strategic point, which will allow you to take even more regions of the galaxy under control?"

Shepard stood in front of the biologist dumb-shocked, "what?" he asked.

"You see, all our lives we were taught that the System Alliance is nothing more but a bunch of selfish bastards, ready to sell out human race if it would benefit them," she replied, "I need to admit, you personally are nothing like I imagined, but it is still quite difficult to believe in your selfless intentions."

The botanist's words angried the commander. The Alliance had never claimed to have an idealistic or selfless governmental structure, Shepard himself had never claimed to be fully selfless, but the things those people were told were just absurd. "Listen, Rebecca," Shepard said quietly, “look around you, look at what is really going on here. Your governor assigns terrorists to work in the lab, probably working for them himself, and your personnel starts disappearing. Expensive machinery appearing on the field out of nowhere and yet most of the crop is being sent somewhere no-one knows.

“I joined the Alliance military the moment I came of age and, on some level, they saved my life more than once, but I’m not here to promote, I’m not here to try to convince you what great guys they are, I’m here to put an end to whatever is going on.”

It was Valenski’s turn to look at the commander in shock. She listened to him with her mouth agape like she didn’t know what to say, "I... I'm sorry," she finally replied lowering her head.

Shepard took a deep breath, "It is all right," he said. He moved to the still frightened biologist placing both of his hands on the woman's shoulders, until she looked up, locking her gaze with the commander’s one. "I promise I can help you. I only need to know everything you do,” he asked.

It was still noticeable Valenski was unsure, but she nodded once, "all right," she agreed, "what do you want to know?”

“A location,” Shepard replied, “I want to know if there is any place that you know of, which could possibly be an entrance to an underground facility.”

The biologist looked thoughtful for a moment, “I know about a place, about hundred meters away from the North border of the settlement,” she replied. “The governor planned to dig a well there, but changed his mind. He announced the dig-site to be too dangerous for anyone to go, so if it is a secret entrance into the underground location you’re looking for, it should be there."

It was the exact information Shepard needed. "Can you show me where it is?" he asked triumphantly.

“I want to stop this madness,” she replied with a nod, “I will show you.”


	15. Chapter 15

The dig site was situated on the North edge of the colony, close to a residential area with several large private houses, built not from the construction blocks, but real worked stone. It was a small and rather unremarkable part of the settlement concaved into the ground under a cliff of a small hill, half of which was gone to even the surface for the construction of new buildings.

The site was surrounded with yellow tape and it wasn't even the force-field fence the modern police used, but an actual physical thing made of polyethylene with black _'do not cross'_ letters printed over its surface.

Even if the site wasn't deep, a convenient metal staircase was leading down the hole towards something covered up with black plastic sheeting. The staircase looked old, rusty like it was salvaged from somewhere else, but seemed stable and reliable, capable of withholding not only several people simultaneously, but heavy loads of cargo as well.

Shepard reached the entrance, moving the plastic sheeting out of the way. Under the layer of black polyethylene, he found a rather large metal trap door which covered a good portion of the ground under his feet. Smooth and silver in color, it looked like nothing made on this planet.

At the same time, as Shepard touched it surface, he couldn't shake off a strong feeling of familiarity, like if he had seen that type of metal on many occasions. The realization of what it was made the commander retrieve his hand from the metal surface, his eyes wide.

It seemed Valenski noticed his confusion. She came closer to Shepard giving him a questioning look, "is everything alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's just..." Shepard shook his head. He scanned the material with his omni-tool to make absolutely sure that he wasn't mistaken, but the device only confirmed his suspicions. "It's made of the same kind of material as the Reapers," he replied.

Valenski was silent for a moment, like if contemplating, "but I haven't heard about even one of those things landing on Horizon," she said, "how could this material appear in the middle of our colony?"

Shepard thought about it for a moment. The metal under his feet didn't seem old, there wasn't a single dot of rust anywhere on it's surface, it looked like it was molten into it's current shape only recently. On another hand, the Citadel and all of the mass relays were made of the same exact material, and Shepard knew well how old they were. It was possible the underground bunker was buried here for as long as Horizon itself existed, unaffected by the humid soil of the planet even the slightest.

"It could've happened millennia ago," Shepard said nodding at the metal layer, "but what I wonder is how long it's been in use in this cycle and there is only one way to find out."

The trap door didn't have a visible lock or handle, but after only a moment of looking around, Shepard was able to find a little panel on its side. The gap between it and the rest of the metal surface was so small, that it was almost invisible.

Shepard pushed the panel in and a part of the metal construction trembled before sliding apart, revealing a narrow passageway. There was another set of stairs with small lights conveniently set along the way, but it was still impossible to predict how far down it was leading.

"Commander!" Shepard heard Neith calling him, her intonation uneasy. He turned his head and saw the private descending down into the dig site in hurried steps, her face a little panicked. "We have a small problem," she said as he reached Shepard, breathing heavy, like if she ran a good distance.

Shepard didn't even have time to ask what kind of problem they had when he noticed the answer to his question appearing in the field of his vision as Governor Nover approached the edge of the dig site. Either because the governor was angry, or because he was sick, his face was bright-red and he was persperating profoundly, even if the outside temperature couldn't be higher than fifteen degrees Celsius.

"Didn't you play enough of your games?" Nover groaned frustrated looking at Shepard down from where he stood.

Shepard knuckled his hand in anger and annoyance. The governor's attitude was driving the commander crazy, making him want to resolve to violence, but he knew that it wouldn't do anything good, so he took a deep breath, trying to will his anger away.

"I don't think you understand your own situation," Shepard shook his head.

"Don't I?" Nover laughed sarcastically, "the hole under the ground is sealed, because we discovered a poisonous gas while digging. Five of our men died in the accident. I don't want to collect your corpses and deal with even more Alliance assholes!"

Shepard almost snapped at the governor, replying him with something even more sharp, but stopped himself the last moment. Instead, he wondered why Nover still tried to pretend he didn't know anything, why he continued playing the game of ignorance, when Shepard was so close to exposing him. Every evidence Shepard had gathered so far pointed at Nover's guilt, and yet the man hadn't cracked.

The governor meanwhile switched his attention from Shepard to the biologist, "and you, Doctor Valenski, on which side are you exactly?" he asked mockingly.

Valenski didn't answer and Shepard could see her tensing as she averted her eyes. He made a step closer to her, placing his hand on the biologist's shoulder. "Don't worry, I promise he won't be able to harm you," he reassured in a whisper.

Valenski raised her eyes, looking at the commander unsure, it didn't look like she truly believed his words, but she nodded once anyway, "let's go," she replied quietly, "I want it to be over with."

Being on edge the entire day, Shepard couldn't agree more. Venturing into dark underground chambers had never been his favorite pass-time, but if he had to choose between that and keeping listening to the governor, who still stood on the edge of the site continuing spitting insults into Shepard's direction, the decision seemed obvious.

Before descending down the recently opened set of stairs, Shepard returned his attention back to the small panel next to the trap door. No matter how much he wanted to continue moving forward towards his missing friends, Shepard couldn't allow anyone to cut off their only mean of returning by locking the door behind their backs. Crouching in front of it, he drew out a blade from his omni-tool, prying open the panel and removing the top portion of the locking mechanism.

"I'm going to sue you for the property damage!" Nover continued meanwhile wildly gesticulating with his arms, his face becoming redder than Shepard thought was humanly possible.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Shepard replied casually, not caring if the governor could hear him or not. He sunk the tip of the blade into the locking mechanism as deep as he could, watching a cascade of sparks emerging from the lock.

When it was done with, Shepard switched his attention to Neith who now stood beside him, watching the commander curiously, "cover the rear," he ordered simply, before raising back up and turning towards the stairs leading deeper into the underground bunker.

The tunnel Shepard found himself in was dark. The row of small lights glowed faintly from both sides around the stairs providing some illumination, but it wasn't enough so he had to pull out his pistol and turn on the flashlight.

The walls themselves were made of the same metal as the door, making Shepard wonder who could've built the bunker in the first place. He doubted that it was Cerberus, because no matter how much resources they had, a project so massive needed to be started years ago and no-one could have a metal so rare in such amounts before all of the Reapers were deactivated.

The descend was a long one. Shepard tried to determine how deep underground they were, but the thick walls of the bunker were starting to play havoc with the navigation systems of his omni-tool as no signal from the outside world could pass through them.

The long dark corridor led them to a bigger circular room with several pillars surrounding it. The pillars were engraved with geometrical patterns glowing faintly blue in the dark and while it wasn't enough light to illuminate the room fully, it was enough to see the surroundings even without the aid of the flashlights.

In the very middle of the room was a platform, which looked like some sort of elevator capable of descending even further. The entire mechanism was powered down and didn't look functioning, but there was a control panel next to it.

Shepard nearly turned to ask if anyone could override it, but remembered that every member of his squad who was good with the technological side of things wasn't here. With a sigh he stepped to the panel, starting to run the diagnostics himself.

It took almost ten minutes of work, but in the end the lights in the entire area went on and a sound of static noise came from an intercom next to the panel. "Anyone's there?" he heard a familiar voice coming through the noise.

"James, is it you?" Shepard asked, relieved to hear the voice.

"Hey, Loco," Vega replied. He sounded tired, but there also was a note of joy, which helped Shepard to conclude the rest of the landing party was alight.

Another voice Shepard was relieved to hear joined the conversation, "aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Shepard," Liara said, "or should I say sore ears?"

Shepard didn't intend for it to happen, but he felt a wide smile spreading over his face, "you have no idea how good it is to hear you," he nodded even if he knew that neither James, nor Liara could see him. "Where are you?" he asked.

"Hard to say," Vega replied, "it's a laboratory of some sort. There’ve been panels to open the doors at our location, but something blew up pretty hard and they are completely annihilated."

"All right," Shepard said, "we are currently somewhere in a room with an elevator, going to come down and look for you, so stay put."

"Ok, Loco," Vega chuckled, "we'll try not to go anywhere."

Shepard smiled, feeling like a heavy load was taking off his mind when he heard the voices of his friends. He activated the elevator controls and stepped onto the platform in the middle of the room, gesturing Neith and Valenski to follow him, before he pushed a button next to the platform itself, starting to slowly go down to the lower floor.

Moments later, they found themselves in another circular area. It was a little larger than the previous section, but without the supporting columns. There was something akin to a decontamination room on the far end of the area, which seemed to be leading into a different portion of the facility. Both doors leading in and out the room were made of transparent material, which looked different from the rest of the place, like it was installed later, using the technology of the current cycle.

Most of the area was lid by several dozens of spot lamps installed into the ceiling, but the part behind the glass doors was dark, like it was using the different source of power from the rest of the place. Never the less, Shepard was able to easily spot Vega standing behind the glass doors, weaving at the commander to attract attention

"It only can be opened from your side," Vega explained pointing at several additional panels when Shepard approached him.

"Alright, I will try to override it," Shepard nodded stepping to the console. "How are you?"

"I've been better," Vega admitted, "but it doesn't really matter."

"Shepard!" Liara smiled, appearing in the glass room from behind Vega's back, "I knew you would come."

"Sorry it took me so long," the commander replied apologetically as he worked on activating the panel. It beeped weakly and the ceiling of the decontamination chamber behind the glass door lid up before the lock on the door itself clicked opened.

"Ok, guys," Shepard said, "You're free to go."

"Hey, while you're here, I think you should come in and check the rest of this crazy place," Vega proposed pointing towards the area behind his back.

Shepard nodded. He turned away from the panel and started to walk towards the glass door, but before he even had time to push it open, the lock beeped and returned into the lockdown mode. The lights in the glass chamber never went down, but the lock itself seemed to have a timer, which was making it impossible to return back if all of them were going to follow Shepard inside.

The commander wanted to ask Neith to stand behind, but before he even turned into the direction of the young private, Doctor Valenski approached the decontamination chamber controls. She looked over it's smooth metal surface studying the holographic keyboard, like it was one of the specimen in the lab. "I can stay here and unlock it for you," she proposed. "It looks simple enough, like the system we have in our lab."

It was possible that Shepard would need a biologist's expertise. At the same time, Doctor Valenski was a civilian and Shepard had already went too far by dragging her into the bunker, so living her behind in the safety seemed as a better idea in the end.

"Great thinking," Shepard nodded. He waited for Valenski to unlock the door again, before he and Neith stepped inside the decontamination room.

The door on the other side of the glass chamber was open and, true to Vega's words, the next section of the underground facility looked like a research laboratory. The place was enormous, with hundreds of different machines and devices, purpose for most of which Shepard didn't even know. One of the sections of the premises was stocked with large glass containers, interconnected with what looked like medical equipment by many little tubes and wires. Most of the containers had their glass part shattered, but several still intact ones were filled with light-blue transparent liquid.

Shepard walked closer to a broken one. The blue liquid was splashed all over the floor under the container and up-close it looked really dense, like Jell-O. A thick layer of crust formed over it, indicating that it had enough time to dry. Whatever happened here didn't happen in the last several days.

Shepard scanned the substance. It was a mix of at least fourteen different components all of which were absolutely safe and found in a human body. The faint blue glow was coming from a small concentration of element zero, mixed into the substance.

"It is artificial uterus fluid," Liara sighed stepping to the commander.

"And it's mixed with Eezo," Vega added, "feels like they were cloning an army of biotics here."

"Not an army -- only one. A prototype," Javik explained. He approached one of the unshattered containers, touching its glass surface with the tips of his fingers. "There is so much pain in this room, so much death," he said closing his eyes, his expression filled with discomfort.

Shepard felt his heart skipping a beat. He made a step backwards eyeing the row of large glass vessels in shock. His imagination provided him with images of a little helpless child trapped in one of those containers, a group of Cerberus scientists surrounding her, taking notes on her progression, growth like she was nothing but a lab rat, a plant in a pot.

"We were late," Liara added, "all of the research data was wiped, but I was able to extract some of it," she explained walking to one of the computers in the room, "I'm not entirely sure about it, but it looks like they didn’t want to clone an exact copy of someone, but were using two very specific sets of parental chromosomes."

Shepard was starting to feel sick on his stomach, angry at the same time. Spending the majority of the day trying to locate his missing party and dealing with the general populous of the the colony, he had to rearrange his priorities and didn't have time to think about Doctor Sonars discovery. Two particular sets of parental chromosomes were used to create a human being, a little girl, and one of them belonged to Shepard.

His emotions were probably easily readable on his face, because a moment later, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Liara standing next to him, her expression concerned, "Shepard, are you alright?" she asked.

Shepard realized that, distracted by his own thoughts, he didn't even notice her move away from the computer terminal and approach. He shook his head, trying to gather himself. No matter how personal the information about the mission had become, he didn't plan on withholding it from his crew, but it didn't meant he was ready to discuss it right away in the middle of an abandoned, half-destroyed Cerberus laboratory.

He also felt uncomfortable doing it before he had a chance to talk to Kaidan, as it concerned the other man to the point when even Hackett would not disagree. "It doesn't matter right now," he replied. "Does it say whose DNA they were using?" he asked instead switching his attention back on the task. He knew only about his part, but the identity of the owner of the other half of the DNA code was unknown.

"No," Liara shook her head, "but it looks like they had a lot of troubles connecting these two particular sets. Many of the test subjects couldn't survive even first two weeks."

Shepard closed his eyes, rubbing his face with the palm of his hand and sighing in frustration, "damn," he whispered.

"We also have no idea what the hell happened here," Vega said walking around the laboratory room, "I doubt that people working here just finished their research and left blowing the place to pieces. What happened to those scientists?" he pondered pointing on something on the ground.

Shepard looked in the direction Vega was pointing at. Only now he noticed laboratory coats scattered on the ground all over the room. He stepped closer to one of the coats and noticed that what at the first sign looked like a single piece of clothing was actually an entire set consistent of a coat, a shirt, pants and even a small silver ring lying next to it. The clothing items laid in a pool of strange goo-like substance, which made it look like whomever the clothes belonged to was liquified.

"Sir," he heard Neith speaking as the girl approached the commander, "I could try to scan the place if you wish me to," she said.

"Aren't you too tired for that?" Shepard asked turning to Neith.

Neith frowned for a moment as if thinking about it, before smiling briefly and shaking her head. She moved to the center of the room where she found a more or less clean spot on the ground to sit and only a moment later Shepard was able to see a dome of blue energy spreading around the girl.

Shepard had witnessed Neith at work on several occasions. He knew that usually a single scan could take several minutes and was prepared to wait, but the field of her biotics didn't even reach the edges of the lab, when her expression changed, like something clicked inside her. The blue energy faded and the private opened her eyes, breathing heavily and visibly shaking.

Shepard was at her side the next second, catching the girl before she had a chance to collapse. "Erika, are you all right?" he asked concerned.

It looked like whatever Neith sensed, took a longer period of time to calm down from than it took her to scan the room. She clenched to Shepard, as if afraid for her life, her slim fingers gripped into his uniform in a tight lock. "There was," she hiccuped, "there was such a strong surge of raw, uncontrolled biotic power. I've never felt anything like it."

Shepard remembered something similar happening to her before, in the warehouse back in Vancouver when he saw Neith working for the first time. Only this time she seemed to be affected stronger. In an attempt to calm her down, he placed his hands on the girl's shoulders, kneading them. It helped, because Neith relaxed under his touch, leaning even further into Shepard's embrace. On the corner of his eyes, Shepard noticed both Liara and Vega sparing them amused glances. "Private," Shepard coughed uncomfortably.

It seemed to return Neith to her senses, because the next moment she tensed and almost jumped away from the commander, hurrying to stand up. Even in the poor illumination of the laboratory room, Shepard could see the girl blushing, "I apologize, sir," she said.

"It's alright," Shepard sighed shaking his head, "what did you see?" he asked.

Neith averted her eyes, "something in the cylinders, something with incomprehensible powers woke up and killed almost everyone in the facility," she said. "I'm sorry, I didn't see everything, I couldn't... I can start over," she proposed apologetically.

Shepard carefully watched the private. She seemed very uncomfortable and tired, fidgeting on her feet and looking nowhere else but at the floor under her. Shepard could push her further, could gather more information. "No, you don't have to," he said instead.

The commander then turned to the rest of his squad. "Anything else useful around here?" he asked.

"Not really," Liara replied, "we copied all of the data we were able to save, had time to took samples of the liquid from the containers, even packed an entire suit of a dead scientist. I think it is safe to return back to the surface."

Shepard nodded. An entire day of running around started to catch up with him. The adrenaline from the fear for his away team started to run out, making the commander feel tired, a slight tingle of upcoming pain returning to his joints. All of it made Shepard wistful to leave the underground facility, or better yet the planet itself.

"Ok, let's get out of here then," Shepard agreed.

***

The door leading out of the decontamination room was locked. Shepard knocked on the glass to call for Doctor Valenski, who was still standing in the corridor over the control panel.

"We are ready to leave," he said.

The botanist looked up and Shepard noted there was something wrong with her expression. Valenski looked unsure, even apologetic. He didn't even had time to fully realize what that expression meant, when she reached for the panel and pushed a button.

Something clicked and a door leading back into the laboratory shut close behind their backs, trapping them in the glass prison of the decontamination chamber. "I'm sorry, Commander," Valenski said shaking her head, "I can't allow you to leave."

"You've got to be kidding me," Shepard groaned in frustration, "Rebecca, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled through the thick glass of the room.

The biologist turned her head away, "I'm sorry, I really am but I have to," she sighed. "I have to do it for my daughter."

Another press of a button and a quiet hiss sounded in the room. Shepard looked around noticing the ventilation shafts closing, before green gas started to fill the place from several valves located under the ceiling.

Liara was the one to react first. She activated her biotics, creating a blue shield around their entire party, protecting them from the gas which didn't look pleasant.

"What are you talking about?" Shepard demanded, starting to skim the room with his eyes in an attempt to find the way out.

The transparent material the room was made of looked very thick, obviously bulletproof. There was a speaker on the wall above the door, which was allowing communication with people operating the control panel, but knowing how the metal layer was blocking any signal with the outside world, Shepard suspected it was only a two-point connection.

Giving away into his emotions, into his anger for the governor and fear for his team, Shepard made a mistake, descending into the underground facility before he had a chance to let anyone know about his location.The rest of the soldiers from the ship were left on the planet surface and could find them, but no-one could guarantee they weren't yet captured by the governor's people. They were stuck deep under the ground without any way of contacting the Normandy, without any hope of someone reaching them in time.

"I told you about Doctor Banet," Valenski replied, "I didn't know who he worked for, not at least today, but I was suspicious. At first everything was fine, we studied how to modify wheat with Eezo, but then Banet started to come up with ideas of switching our experiments to humans," she said and Shepard could see tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "I confronted him, but he threatened to take my daughter away if I let anyone find out about his plans."

"Oh, that's just classy!" Vega groaned throwing his arms up. "An innocent victim speech was exactly the last words I wanted to hear before dying."

By now the room was absolutely filled with green poisonous gas. It was leaking even through the biotic barrier, making Shepard's eyes water. He turned his head to look at Liara and saw she was starting to look tired holding her biotics up.

"Rebecca," Shepard called, "don't you understand that it's not going to accomplish anything? The Alliance will send an army to investigate what happened here if we won't return, they will find this place, they will arrest you and you will spend the rest of your life locked up, away from your daughter! Is that what you want?"

"No!" Valenski protested, "everything will point on Nover, the documentations, the attestations, even our conversation in the botanic laboratory, where you practically accused him. They are going to listen to your words. As for me, I will tell that there was a trap in the facility. You pushed me out of the room before the door shut close, saved my life."

"Our conversation?" Shepard chuckled crossing his arms over his chest. "Do you have a copy of it on you right now?" he asked.

"Why do you ask?" Rebecca inquired.

"Play it. Just play it," the commander demanded.

The botanist activated her omni-tool. A small screen above her wrist appeared showing the recording of the surveillance camera in the botanic facility. Even from the trap of decontamination room Shepard could see and hear his own self talking to the botanist.

 _"During mating season whales will travel towards the equator to take advantage of the warmer climates."_ Shepard from the vid was saying.

 _"Exactly!"_ Doctor Valenski was replying, _"During these long voyages some whales will even forgo eating and will live off of energy stored in their blubber that they gained during their feeding period."_

 _"And it definitely answers the most important question in existence,"_ Shepard was agreeing, _"to be, or not to be."_

"What is this?" the botanist asked, looking at the recording in shock.

"You see," the commander replied, "my communication specialist, Samantha, noticed a surprising amount of surveillance around the settlement, so before going to talk to you, I asked a good friend of mine to poke around them," he explained. "Although, I honestly thought that I was doing it for your protection."

"But even an idiot will understand that the video was modified. It even doesn't sound like my voice," Valenski protested.

"Yeah, but they won't be able to find out what we originally talked about and without it, even if all other evidence will point at the governor, you will go to jail as an accomplice."

Valenski never responded. She continued to watch the video playing over her wrist where the conversation between the miniature copies of her and Shepard switched to utilizing famous Blasto quotes. Her mouth agape, she felt to her knees and started to cry even harder than previously.

Behind Shepard, Liara collapsed on her knees too, but didn't let go of the barrier. Shepard knew that in other circumstances she would've been able to withstand longer, but she'd been already exhausted when they left the laboratory.

"Rebecca, listen to me," Shepard tried again, his intonation softer, "the base behind this door is abandoned. Whoever worked here isn't going to return. And even if they will, Alliance can send people to protect you," he pleaded, but with no result.

"This is pointless," Javik commented with a sigh.

Shepard shook his head, not yet ready to give up. He stepped closer to the glass door, almost to the edge of the barrier, "Rebecca, please. I fought Cerberus, I stopped the Reapers and I promise I can protect you, just let me help."

The biologist remained silent and a heavy weight of desperation dropped on the commander. He thought about Kaidan, about how much he wanted to see his husband again. He thought about every innocent life Cerberus was going ruin without Shepard out there to stop them, about the little girl cloned for unknown purposes. Shepard couldn't die now, he didn't want to.

"They took my daughter too, you know," he said sighing. The confession seemed to get Valenski’s attention and she raised her eyes to look at the commander in surprise. Shepard barely saw the rest of his team, but he had no doubt they looked at him too. "It wasn’t something anyone knew. Hell, I hadn't even know I had a daughter until recently," he shrugged, unable to hold a nervous chuckle, "I'm a husband and a father, Rebecca and I want to do everything I can to protect my family as well as everyone else harmed by Cerberus."

Even if Shepard’s story wasn’t a lie, it was phrased in a way to get to Velenski. It felt wrong to use it as an excuse, but he had no other choice. At the same time, when the words escaped Shepard, he realized that he really meant them. The girl was a clone, made of his DNA and without his consent, but for all it was worth, it still made her his child, his daughter.

A thrill of realization struck Shepard making him shiver.

Valenski looked at Shepard for a long moment, locking her gaze with him. When Shepard thought that nothing could save them now, when he lost all the hope and wanted to avert his eyes away in defeat, he saw the biologist nod. Valenski stood from the floor and returned to the control panel. A moment later the ventilation shafts opened, venting the poison from the air, before the commander could hear a click and the door before them was locked no more.


	16. Chapter 16

"So, do you think the governor is clean?" Shepard asked.

He stood in the middle of the communication hub, talking to the admiral after they finally returned to the ship. Shepard felt exhausted and he couldn't wait for the working day to end, but as soon as he finished his report and sent it to the admiral, Hackett contacted him, insisting on continuing the briefing personally.

"Nover is a hell of a headache," Hackett admitted, "but I'm afraid this isn't a sufficient enough reason to put him under arrest. We are going to investigate him further, but I doubt anything of importance would surface.”

Shepard didn't find anything to prove Nover's affiliation to Cerberus and, to tell the truth, he wasn't sure anymore if the man was guilty. After returning from the underground bunker and confronting Nover about what was really going at in the colony, the governor had decided to have a sudden change of heart, signing a trading treaty on the Valenski wheat. The man continued to glare at the commander with anger, but didn't say a word, most likely too afraid to even think about consequences of his incorporation.

"And what about Doctor Valenski?” Shepard asked.

“Valenski is awaiting a transport ship to Earth," Hackett replied. "She will be in our custody untill the court. She was manipulated, so most likely the maximum she can get is a few years conditionally," Hackett paused then, looking at the commander unsure, disapproval showing on his face, "unless, of course, you will change your mind and decide to file an accusation in a murder attempt.”

Shepard was still uncertain what to think about the biologist. She did try to kill him and every other member of his team present in the bunker, but even without his promise to help her, he understood Valenski acted in a fear for someone she cared about. Shepard couldn’t find it in himself to blame her.

"It's not necessary," he shook his head, "she simply tried to protect her daughter."

Hackett fell silent for a moment, studying Shepard closely, the authority radiating from his gaze even through the holographic projection and the commander couldn't shake off a feeling of being scolded. He also could guess what the admiral was thinking about and was prepared for the topic which was most likely the reason the admiral insisted on talking to him in the first place.

"I had time to read your report about the girl," Hackett sighed, "I hope you do understand, that whoever she is, she isn't your child."

Shepard averted his eyes, his fists clenching too hard around the railing before the holographic projector. He wasn't sure how to reply, even if he had plenty of opportunities to think about it. He wanted to protest at first, to tell that no matter the circumstances, Hackett was wrong, but he could see the admiral’s point too, understood how an attachment like that could compromise him.

"Whatever I think about her," Shepard replied, "I will not allow it to interfere with the mission."

"Are you sure, Commander?” the admiral asked calmly. “I wouldn't judge you and we could reassign this mission to Major Vega, give you something else.”

“Don’t worry, Admiral,” Shepard reassured. “It won’t be necessary.”

Hackett studied him for another moment and Shepard could read it on the admiral’s face that he didn’t believe the commander. Yet in the end, Hackett's face softened and he nodded, “good luck then, Shepard,” he said, “Hackett out.”

The lights of the holographic projection disappeared in a brief flash of pixels, leaving Shepard  to stay in the middle of the dim hub, thinking about the admiral's words.

A light knock on the metal interrupted his thoughts. Shepard turned around and saw Garrus standing in the doorframe between the hub and the war room, leaning on it. He held a datapad in front of him, as if he was reading it earlier, but now his attention was focused solemnly on the commander.

"Anything you need?" Shepard asked rubbing his eyes, allowing the note of tiresomeness to slip into his voice as he knew he could relax around his friend.

"I brought you a report from Liara," Garrus replied nodding at the datapad.

Shepard approached Garrus, leaning on the other side of the doorframe, taking the offered report from his hands, "since when did you signed up to be my personal mail man?" he asked, a small smirk appearing on his face.

"Come on, Shepard," Garrus replied with a chuckle, "it's like a tradition on the ship, that a person who wants to talk to you the most, brings reports."

Shepard snorted at the statement, shaking his head, "what are you, guys, drawing straws or something?" he asked.

"No, EDI sets us up to complete deadly trials and the winner gets the honors," Garrus replied laughing quietly. The carefree atmosphere between them didn't last thought. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop on your conversation," he said frowning, "but I heard the last part of it."

Shepard closed his eyes, leaning further into the metal frame of the wall, the nape of his head douching its cool surface. Out of his friends, Shepard expected Garrus to back his decision the most, "you aren't going to tell me you agree with Hackett, are you?" he asked, "or do you think I should back off, let someone else handle it?"

"No," Garrus replied simply, "I talked to Vega before you briefed everyone on the situation. He was sure you lied your ass off in front of Valenski to get you all out of the bunker. Turns out you didn't have to," Garrus paused for a moment frowning, "damn, Shepard, you're just out of the frying pan and into fire, or whatever you humans say about situations like this. It feels like your life will never be easy."

Garrus' admission made Shepard chuckle again, "are you saying you passed all those deadly trials of pulling straws just to tell me life sucks?" he asked.

"Someone had to," Garrus replied with a shrug, a barely noticeable smirk half-hidden behind his mandibles. "None the less, do you want to know what we were able to find?" he added nodding at the datapad in Shepard's hands.

Shepard looked down, quickly reading the lines of text on the device. There wasn't much data they could salvage from the Cerberus' computers and the little amount they managed to recover didn't make a lot of sense. The majority of the data wasn't even connected to the cloning experiments, but described the research on the Valenski wheat.

The thing that attracted the commander's attention, however, was a single line which talked about the 'reverse process'. The report didn't give any details and it was difficult to understand what the term meant.

"Did our squad of bright minds come up with an explanation?" Shepard asked pointing at the line.

Garrus shook his head, "Liara, Traynor and Sonars are working on it, but for now the closest thing they have to an explanation is a reverse process of the wheat growth," he said, "they think Cerberus was trying to find out how to slow the process of plant cells aging."

Shepard hummed thoughtfully. No matter how useful such research seemed to be, he couldn't imagine it being of any interest to Cerberus. It meant that they were missing something important, some vital link between the wheat research and the cloning experiments. Shepard could feel the two spheres were connected, even if he still wasn't sure in what ways.

"Anything else?" Shepard asked.

"Not yet," Garrus sighed, "and I doubt there will be anything in the data caches you brought. The botanic laboratory at the colony was more useful. There wasn't anything related to our case, but Liara thinks she will be able to track every scientist who worked in the lab, given enough time."

Shepard nodded, returning the datapad back into Garrus' hands, "good," he said, "that is going to be our next step then."

He excused himself and almost turned around to walk away, but Garrus called out his name. The commander looked at the turian again and noticed a note of uncertainty reading on his friend's features.

"About your," Garrus started to speak, but paused as if afraid about something, "about this girl," he said instead, "I just wanted you to know that, even if I'm not the one who should tell you what to think about her, I'll back you up on any decision."

Shepard smiled to Garrus and nodded. He wasn't mistaken about his friend's support, but even then, hearing those words out loud was gratifying. "Thanks, Garrus," he said tapping the turian on the shoulder.

***

It was nearly twenty three hundred hours when Shepard padded out of the shower with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. He felt fairly tired and was ready to fall asleep the moment his head was going to touch the pillow, but it wasn't something he could afford yet. There was one final thing he planned to do that evening.

"EDI," Shepard called, "we still should be in a comm buoy range, can you patch me through to Kaidan on maximum security and activate the privacy protocol?"

As usual, EDI's reply was instantaneous, "yes, Commander," she said and not a moment later, the lock on the door to his quarters turned red and his private terminal started dial his husband.

It seemed that Kaidan was expecting the call, because only a few short moments later, when Shepard had only enough time to put on a pair of briefs, a tired voice sounded from the speakers of his terminal. "Hey, John," he greeted.

"Hey, love," Shepard had to call from the other end of the room where he was trying to find a shirt in his own locker. He found it, but instead of spending time on putting it on, he threw it on the bed, eager to see Kaidan, even if it was simply a two-dimensional projection of the other man's face. He appeared in front of the terminal, unable to hold a wide smile even as tired as he was.

"Were you getting ready for me?" Kaidan chuckled, his eyes roaming shamelessly over Shepard's half-naked body.

"More like you answered the call before I could dress," Shepard replied with a smirk of his own. He ended up grabbing the terminal from the desk and carrying it with him to the bed, placing it on his lap as he settled down onto the mattress.

Kaidan frowned mockingly, "you could've at least pretended," he said.

Shepard could've pretended. He could've spent the entire evening just chatting with his husband about nothing in particular. He could tell him how his knees were starting to feel a little worse from all the walking around, or listen to a few stories about Kaidan's students. Shepard could simply keep telling him just how much he wanted Kaidan in bed with him, so he could kiss every single inch of his body, every freckle on his skin for the rest of the evening.

Instead, Shepard picked up the shirt he left on the bed and started to pull it on. The topic he wanted to discuss with Kaidan was important and being half-naked wasn't going to help him concentrate.

Kaidan watched Shepard dress silently, all traces of amusement gone from his expression. "Is everything alright?" he asked.

A thought about hiding the truth came across the commander's mind, but he pushed it away. He didn't want to lie to his husband even if he hated the worried look on the other man's face. "No, not really," he admitted after taking a deep breath.

Shepard watched Kaidan moving his chair closer to his desk, his posture changing into more rigid. "What's going on?" he asked concerned.

"Not even sure where to start," Shepard admitted moving his eyes away from the picture before him, focusing somewhere on the far corner of his bed.

"From the beginning?" Kaidan proposed.

And Shepard did.

He told his husband everything, starting with his misadventures on Horizon earlier that day. He told him about the secret base they found and everything they saw inside that base, about Cerberus crop research which wasn't making any sense and the cloning experiments.

Kaidan didn't try to stop him, but when Shepard was done with the introduction part, he sighed and shook his head, "do you know how bad you violated the protocols by sharing classified information?" he asked. "I was not supposed to know any of it."

"Actually, I've got a permission from Hackett," Shepard replied with a shrug, "I felt you needed to know it."

Kaidan hummed surprised. "That is unusual," he admitted.

"Not really, considering you were involved with the operation from the beginning, even if none of us knew it at first," Shepard explained, "plus, it might involve you more that it was anticipated."

Kaidan raised an eyebrow, but remained silent, allowing Shepard to explain himself.

This time, Shepard told him the whole extent of the story, starting from the moment he found a dog-tag at the warehouse. He told about the current medical officer on board of the _Normandy_ finding the match in the girl's DNA and the one of Shepard, and finished with an explanation of what they discovered in the underground Cerberus facility.

Kaidan sat in his chair behind the desk, not even moving. He listened to Shepard carefully, keeping an eye-contact with the commander the entire time. When Shepard finished his narration, Kaidan reminded silent.

The silence seemed frightening to Shepard. The entire situation wasn't his fault, but he could imagine Kaidan having difficulties with processing that sort of information. Finding out about someone's spouse having a child they didn't know about was one thing, but finding out that child was also an illegal cloning experiment done by a galaxy-wide terrorist organization was not something one could could consider a good news.

Shepard also couldn't imagine Kaidan's attitude towards Cerberus was making it easier on him. The commander could never bring himself to justify their actions, but Kaidan was a man who saw the world a little more black and white than him. While some of their previous interactions with Cerberus led Kaidan to a discovery that not every single individual among their ranks was evil and selfish, he despised the organization as an idea more than Shepard thought he ever could.

"Kaidan?" Shepard called out.

Kaidan looked away not focusing on anything in particular. "I..." he said, "I don't know what to say. Are you sure about it?" he asked.

Shepard could hear a plea in his husband's intonation, like if Kaidan was hoping for Shepard to say no. Unfortunately, they managed to discover to much proof for him to deny it. "I wish I could say that I wasn't," Shepard said shaking his head.

Silence hung upon them yet again. It lasted for several moments, untill Kaidan frowned as if contemplating something, "there's one thing I don't understand," he said, "why would they bring this girl to Earth. Why, of all the places, she appeared in the middle of Downtown Vancouver, exactly where we go to eat almost every day?"

Shepard thought about it and the more time he spent thinking, the less sense it made. The girl was delivered into the warehouse on the other end of the city and while there could've been an explainable reason for Cerberus to bring her there, her showing up somewhere so close where they lived seemed too small of a chance to be a simple coincidence.

Unless, of course it wasn't a coincidence, "do you think it may be a trap?" Shepard asked.

"I think that Cerberus couldn't be less obvious about it, unless they'd sent a colorful booklet with a welcoming to their trap message," Kaidan replied.

"Perhaps, you're right," Shepard nodded with sigh.

"And yet, you are planning on continuing the pursuit, aren't you," Kaidan said in a manner that it was more of a statement than a question. His expression remained calm, but Shepard couldn't miss to look of disapproval his husband gave him.

"I can't," Shepard shook his head, rubbing his face with the palm of his hand, "she's just a child, moreover a one sharing my DNA."

"But it doesn't make her your responsibility," Kaidan protested. Shepard could see him trying to remain in control over his emotions, but his intonation raised a note. "I know we've walked into a dozens of traps on purpose, but you aren't as strong of fast as you used to."

"Kaidan," Shepard sighed, "please, don't make me turn my back on it. You're the only person in the entire galaxy who can, but think about. You know my orders are to stay on the ship and supervise, I'm not really in much danger here, on the _Normandy_."

"Right, because running off into a giant underground bunker without even a hardsuit was following your orders to the letter," Kaidan replied sarcastically, shaking his head.

"It won't happen again," Shepard insisted.

They held a gaze with each-other, even though it wasn't an easy task to perform through the personal terminal's screen. Shepard knew that he was being stubborn, that he was making a promise it was going to be really difficult to keep, but he couldn't imagine himself giving up on an innocent child.

His daughter.

Something probably changed in Shepard's face when he thought about it, because Kaidan's own expression softened the next moment, "I get it," the other man said. "I just worry about you, he admitted, "I want you to be careful."

"I will, I promise," Shepard nodded. "And after this mission I will even agree to spend the rest of my life doing nothing but paperwork. I'll be all yours."

"Tempting," Kaidan smirked. He opened his mouth again, like if he wanted to say something else, but started to yawn instead, "ugh, sorry, it's close to midnight already," he said, his voice muffled by his own fist which he used to cover his mouth.

"Yeah, I'm tired myself," Shepard admitted with a nod. He sunk further into his pillow placing the terminal on the second one next to him. It was surprising how easy it was to get used to sharing a bed with someone, and how lonely it felt to find himself sleeping alone. He wished Kaidan to be with him so he could fall asleep in the other man's arms, feeling his warmth. He pulled the blanket over his body. "I love you," he whispered quietly.

"I love you too," Kaidan replied and Shepard watched the image on his screen move and shake as his husband picked the terminal up, carrying it into their bedroom, repeating the same little gesture of placing the computer on the pillow as he climbed into the bed.

If Shepard was only to close his eyes and continue talking, he could pretend there wasn't a single light years separating them.

He didn't close his eyes, watching Kaidan instead. Even through the dip illumination of their bedroom back in Vancouver, he noticed how sad Kaidan looked. Shepard hated that expression of his face. He knew that retreating wasn’t an option for him, but he started to feel a need to explain the other man it wasn’t simply because Shepard didn’t care about their relationship. "Kaidan," he called.

"Mhm?" Kaidan replied sleepily.

"If you really want, if you insist, I can call Hackett, ask for another assignment. You know, I would do it for you. It’s just..." he trailed off.

"I know,” Kaidan replied, the sadness in his eyes melting, "but you're right too," he said. Shepard waited for him to elaborate, but Kaidan only managed to yawn again and this time it was infectious enough for Shepard to join him. Kaidan laughed at it, before continuing, "besides, if you give up so easily, how can you be the same person I fell in love with?"

 


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Hackett sat in his office with a data-pad in his hands. He moved his glance from the document he held to the man who was sitting in front of him, glaring at the admiral with a stare which could make anyone uncomfortable.

"Do you know, that in the committee’s eyes these reasons would look even less appealing?" Hackett sighed. "The current circumstances provide lesser chances they will agree on transferring you."

The face of the man didn't change a bit, like he was prepared to hear those words. The determination had never left its features, which made the man look even more intimidating.

"I understand it, sir," Kaidan nodded, "but I find myself in a difficult situation, where my personal involvement with Commander Shepard affects my work here. That is why I consider myself to be more useful if assigned to _the Normandy_. Plus, the commander’s affiliation with the subject of the mission might affect his performance in negative ways, if there will be no-one whose personal opinion can influence his judgment. I'm sure that the committee can see it."

Well, it was the most polite way to say 'I don't give a shit about the committee' the admiral had ever heard. Moreover, it was coming from Kaidan, of all the people. From the man who built his military career by following every single rule, the by-the-book Alenko.

Hackett had known this man for many years. Since the very first time he'd met him, the admiral could see the tendency to be extremely strict and follow orders without questions. It was making the biotic a perfect soldier and even a great low ranking officer, but to tell the truth, Hackett had never expected him to reach the position he currently held. The admiral couldn't believe how much this man had changed.

Hackett suspected that a part of it was connected with the biotic's service under Shepard's command, as the other man was the exact opposite of Kaidan. Shepard could smile and nod, and salute with an 'yes, sir!', but at the same time, he could turn around and alternate his course of actions, just so it would fit with his personal ethics. The commander was also perfectly able to distinguish exactly when was the time to follow orders and when he could ignore them, finding ways around the protocol and, most of the times, managing to get away with it.

When Anderson proposed assigning the two of them in the same squad under his command, he voiced an opinion that some of their personal traits might rub off each-other and improve their overall performance. Years after, Hackett would be a fool to deny that these two were perfect together. And no, not as a couple, because their personal lives were none of his business, but as a team. Shepard respected Kaidan enough to actually listen to his advices and Shepard's influence made Alenko finally start thinking for himself and not expect someone else to make all of the decisions. They balanced each-other.

It also seemed almost inevitable that their professional relationship progressed into a personal one. Hackett even wasn’t very surprised, when a month before the final push in London, Shepard had submitted a change to his personal record, indicating Major Alenko as his next of kin.

But there was also a downside in their involvement, because it was obvious, that Kaidan's personal relationship had become more important for him than duty.

The man was currently glaring at the admiral, and everything in this stare was telling Hackett that Kaidan wasn't going to leave until his request was signed. Hackett was worried that if he was to deny it, the major was stubborn enough to risk his career to get what he thought was right. And the Alliance really needed him where he was.

That was one of the reasons why Hackett was going to bust his gut and reason with the committee on the matter. The other reason was the mission itself, which took too many unexpected turns. Hackett knew that Shepard’s judgment was clouded by his own relation to the girl even if the commander objected to the idea.

Kaidan, on the other hand, no matter what he was going to face, and what he was going to believe, could be a voice of reason for Shepard, and that was why Hackett really needed Kaidan to be there.

"What about your current position in the special operation biotic division?" Hackett finally sighed, picking a pen from the table and placing a signature on the thin holographic screen of the data-pad. "Will you be able to find a suitable replacement for the time you will be absent?"

"I think, I know just the person, sir," Kaidan nodded looking visibly happier, than only a moment ago.

“In this case,” Hackett said returning the signed pad back to Kaidan, “I have something I want you to do.”

***

Shepard had only had time to finish his breakfast, when he was summoned by Doctor Sonars. The commander wasn't sure what was going on, but the doctor's voice sounded urgent, so he hurried to dispose of the plastic dishes he used and went straight to the medical bay.

The inside of the room reminded him of one of the areas of the research facility back on Horizon, as at least two of the tables were occupied with a fresh growth of wheat, planted in several glass jars. Shepard honestly had no idea where all of this wheat came from, because he didn't remember bringing on board anything but a few sample bags. This wheat was at least a meter tall and started to form ears.

In the middle of the medical bay stood Doctor Sonars and Private Neith.

"What is going on here?" the commander asked, quirking his eyebrow. "Where did all of the pots come from?"

"From the sample bag," Sonars explained, "they grew over the night."

Shepard glanced over the wheat again. It looked around two months old, and the commander knew, that even infused with eezo and genetically modified plants could not grow that fast.

"I apologize, but that doesn't seem possible," Shepard shook his head.

"Well, it didn't seem possible to me either," Sonars confirmed. "You see, I was working with the analysis of the data we found in the Cerberus facility, and some of it seemed strange to me. I asked Erika's help with an experiment."

"Experiment?" Shepard surprised, "I thought you were a medic, not a laboratory scientist."

"I am a medic, Commander," Sonars smiled, "but it doesn't mean I can't work on my Ph.D. when I have some free time. And as these Cerberus wheat experiments came very close to my main sphere of interest -- which is human biotic health -- I thought I could look through the data. That was when I found something truly disturbing."

"Well, yeah, i have to agree, that the wheat growing to this size over the night is really disturbing," Shepard nodded.

"No, that is not even a half of it," the doctor sighed, "Erika, would you please show the commander."

The private nodded, walking closer to one of the tables with pots. She closed her eyes reaching to one of the plants and touching it with her finger. Shepard could see the biotic starting to glow blue, as it was usually happening when they used their powers. The sprout suddenly started to grow even further, right in front of the commander's eyes, changing its color from green to yellow. Its spike started to fill with weight, until the entire plant ripened.

Shepard moved closer to the pot, touching the wheat ear, like he couldn't believe it was real. "That's... that’s strange," he finally concluded.

"Strange doesn't even start to cover it," the doctor added. "Do you remember the data mentioning the reverse process?" she inquired.

Shepard nodded, still looking at the wheat, fascinated.

"We were wrong to assume that the term meant a reduction of the speed of growth."

"What does it mean then?" the commander asked.

"It means, that the reverse process is in fact meaning the reverse of growth. Erika, if you would..." Sonars encouraged.

Neith waited a moment until the commander stepped back, freeing some space for the girl, before her hand returned to the plant. For nearly a minute nothing was happening. "This is way more difficult than making it grow," she mumbled through her teeth, trying to concentrate. A small droplet of sweat started to roll down her temple.

A few more moments the private was standing there with her eyes closed, until finally something happened. At first it was just a cool wave of air reaching the commander, his skin started to tingle with a familiar feeling of static electricity, before he could finally see the plant changing again. This time it wasn't growing or rotting, this time the dead cells of the green chlorophyll started to come back to life and the plant suddenly started to reduce back in size, until it returned to the form similar to every other sprouts around it.

At the end of the procedure, Neith stepped back, breathing hard. "That's all I can manage," she explained, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

"The eezo which the wheat grains were infused with, is burned out at this point," Doctor Sonars explained, "now it's just a plant which grows normally."

Shepard blinked. Never in his life he'd seen anything like this. Even if he wasn't really interested in the agricultural development, he perfectly understood what kind of scientific progress Cerberus achieved.

"I still can't understand what exactly has been done to the seed, because the data from the Cerberus terminals was less than deficient," Sonars continued meanwhile.

"All right, I've actually seen the data. How did you even come up with this test, while there was nothing mentioning the reverse process making the plants grow back?" Shepard inquired.

Doctor Sonars' face changed in a matter of a second. She casted her eyes down like she was extremely uncomfortable. "That is where things become truly disturbing," she sighed. "Remember when you brought me this?" she asked, pointing at the containment chamber in the corner of the medical bay.

Shepard looked behind the glass of the chamber, noticing the set of clothes they brought from the underground research facility.

"We thought that whatever happened down there, disintegrated people working in the laboratory. But when I started to scan the clothes, I found this hidden in the middle of the pile." Sonars took a small glass can filled with transparent liquid and passed it to the commander.

There was something floating in the liquid. At the first glance Shepard thought it was some sort of a pink lizard-creature, not bigger than ten centimeters long, with disproportionately large head and very small, dystrophic limbs. The realization what it really was, struck Shepard less than a moment later, leaving him nearly speechless.

"Oh god..." Neith whispered shocked, covering her mouth.

"Whatever they used on this seed, is possible to use on humans," Sonars whispered. "And it indeed reverse the time."

 

***

When Shepard saw the full extent of it, the reasons behind Cerberus experiments started to make more sense now. Of course, what happened in the research facility was a terrible accident, but what was possible to achieve if they could calculate things right, turning the time back just enough? Everlasting youth? Immortality? Possibility to bring people back to life faster and using fewer resources than it took for the Lazarus project?

In Cerberus' hands, this knowledge could make their organization godlike, considering how many people would want to stay young forever and pay any money for such a remedy. In time, this would give Cerberus the absolute domination over the galaxy.

 

***

It was nearly the end of the day, when _the Normandy_ had finally reached the mass relay of the Iera System. Shepard needed to head to Tuchanka, as he promised Councilor Tevos, but he also needed to resupply the stocks of food on the ship and deliver the wheat samples to the Citadel. The commander set the course to the space station and left the CIC, heading to the second deck to have a dinner.

Shepard expected the mess hall to be empty, as it was past the usual dinner time, but as the commander reached the dining area, he found Private Neith sitting at the table with a plate of microwaved dinner pack. Her eyes were concentrated on the plate, but she wasn't really looking at it, poking a piece of meat with her fork, like she didn't have any appetite.

"Mind if I join?" Shepard asked.

The private looked up, startled, like she didn't hear the commander approaching. "Oh no, sir," she shook her head, "I don't mind."

Shepard went to the refrigerator, extracting one of the frozen food packs, before placing it into the microwave. When the oven finished, he took the steaming pack, emptied it on a plate and returned to the table, taking a seat on the opposite side from Neith.

"How are you holding up, Private?" Shepard asked, as the girl still didn't look good. She had had this air of tiredness and sickness since the first evening they spent in space, and it was very unusual to see someone taking so much time to acclimatize.

"I'm fine," Neith nodded, "way better than two days ago."

"Well, it doesn't seem like that to me," Shepard sighed. "Listen, Erika, is there anything bothering you?"

The private looked at the commander, then chuckled sarcastically, "besides the weird Cerberus experiments turning living people into embryos, you mean?" she asked.

Shepard glanced over the girl. He wondered if it were the deaths of the people, which made her feel troubled, or the Cerberus inhumane experiments. Probably both. He also wondered on what extend the Reaper War had actually affected her, if she'd ever been forced to fight. So far, he considered Neiht to be a little too sensitive for a soldier.

"What were you doing during the war?" he asked.

Neith shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing much, really," she admitted. "I mean, I've never fought, because I hadn't had a proper training at the time, wasn't a part of the military. When the reapers hit I was going to college in Frankfurt. With a group of other civilians I was evacuated to temporary camping, west of the city. It was the first time I started to use my biotics too, trying to scout the areas around the camp just in case the reaper forces would try to locate us. Thankfully, they never did."

"You've never used your biotics before the war?" Shepard raised his eyebrow.

The private cast her eyes down. Shepard could see the muscles on her jaw tensing. "No, I think the information from my profile explains it, sir," she said not looking at the commander.

"I've skimmed through your file once; I've never actually read it," Shepard explained, "I prefer talking to people working with me. But you don't have to, if it's something you'd rather not talk about..."

The private turned her head back to look at the commander. She remained silent for a moment, like she was thinking about something, then she shook her head, "no, it's ok," she said finally. "I mean you were supposed to know it anyway."

The girl moved the plate away, before she sighed and continued, lowering her voice down and talking quieter, almost whispering. "My parents were afraid that if people discovered my biotic potential, I would be taken away. They tried to hide me, so I wasn’t implanted with an amplifier when I reached puberty. Without the biotic amp, humans can't really do much but lift paper napkins or lock flys in a stasis field. But as it turned out, biotics can accumulate some energy even without the implant, and sometimes it can burst out without control."

Neith paused again, looking around the mess hall. Besides the two of them, it was empty. The only thing the commander could hear was the quiet hum of the ship engines and someone's distant voices coming from the longue.

"Nine years ago I had an argument with my older brother, Arnold," Neith continued meanwhile. "The argument was really so trivial -- he didn't like the guy who had been courting me at the time, 'cause he was a member of a biker gang. Arnold was just showing his concern, but I was a dumb teenager who thought no-one knew more about life than me," she paused again, taking a deep breath. "I don't even remember how it happened exactly, I was angry, I pushed my brother and everything suddenly started to glow blue. When it was over..." Neith closed her eyes, "when it was over, I found Arnold lying on the ground, not breathing... I --"

Shepard saw her fighting back tears. He reached for the private’s hand, covering it with his own in a reassuring gesture. "I'm sorry," he whispered sincerely.

"It's ok," Neith shook her head, calming her emotions down. Then she noticed the hand and carefully extracted her own, hiding it under the table. "Right now it's not as bad as it used to be," she continued, "at first I was a wreck, of course. I had to spend a year in treatment for a psychological disorder. I don't even remember that year well, just some blurry images of doctors, medical equipments and a hospital ward I was spending most of the day," she explained.

"Was it the reason why it was difficult for you to work on this mission, when you sensed the spontaneous outbursts of biotic powers?" Shepard inquired.

"Yes and no," the private replied, "I need to admit, it was difficult to be reminded of it again, but it wasn't the only reason. Seeing what Cerberus can do to people working for them, I can imagine what this girl we are after is going through right now, having nothing in her life but fear and suffering. She probably doesn't even know why she is treated like that. No-one should ever go through it, no matter how they appear in this world."

Shepard sighed moving his eyes from the private to his own plate. For some reasons he didn't feel like eating any longer either.

"I know," he nodded in agreement, "I really do."

 

***

_The sensation of chilliness turned into an unbearable cold. Shepard could see steam coming from his mouth, could feel his skin freezing, even if instead of covering with frost it was starting to redden. The commander looked around finding himself in the empty field with the surreal blue flames rising from the ground, scorching the surface of the planet, leaving nothing behind but a frozen landscape._

_Shepard turned around starting to run away from the flames, from this abandoned place, but it was so difficult to even breath. Eventually the flames started to catch up, enveloping him whole, freezing his flesh and burning it at the same time, until it was impossible to move a single part of his body._

_Shepard tried to scream in pain and fear, but it was useless, as not a single sound could escape his lungs. Suddenly, when the last bit of hope left the commander, someone reached him, taking him by the hand and pulling him out the blue fire._

_Shepard fell to his knees, finding himself able to breath again. The flames around him started to dissipate, until disappearing fully back into the ground. The commander was still in the very middle of the empty field, but now nothing seemed to threaten his life._

_Curious, Shepard raised his eyes to look at the person who saved him. It was a beautiful young woman, standing in front of him and looking at the commander with unbelievably blue, like the color of earthen sky, eyes glowing in the night. The woman was naked, like the hazardous temperature wasn't bothering her. Her long chestnut hair was coming down her hips, weaving under the every gust of the cold wind. Behind her back Shepard could see a burning blue moon raising, outlining her silhouette and making it difficult to concentrate on the woman's facial features._

_Some invisible force suddenly started to pull her away. The woman tried to fight, but couldn't resist it. With the last bit of strength, she reached for the commander with her hand._

_"Help me..." she whispered._


	18. Story Concept Art (Part I)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just some doodles and speed-painting I did for the story and decided to upload between book I and II.  
> Please note that they are not illustrations, but concept art, which means they don't represent the moments of the story exactly as it will be.  
> I currently have more of them, but the other ones will be uploaded later as they might have more serious spoilers.

[](http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Rinienne/media/Not%20Gif/levi_zps8d26bce2.jpg.html) [](http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Rinienne/media/Not%20Gif/javik-liara_zpseb9d9af5.jpg.html) [](http://s1196.photobucket.com/user/Rinienne/media/Not%20Gif/tali_zpse845d5f1.jpg.html)


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All thanks to [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801), who deserves a medal for putting up with editing my lousy grammar =)

**Part Two**

**Fires in The Sky**

Kaidan swept his eyes over his working desk for the last time, trying to spot if he forgot something. He had already taken care of every report he needed to file, every paper he needed to sign. He even finished composing the evaluation forms for the test, the first year biotic students were going to take at the end of the semester.

The major sighed and looked at the clock. All of the classes in the facility were already over, and all of the biotic trainees were back at the dormitory campus, relaxing. But unfortunately, the end of the classes didn't mean the end of his working day -- there was another hour and a half before Kaidan could leave. He had to stay in his office, even if he’d managed to finish his work so much earlier.

Kaidan spent some time sitting on his not so comfortable office chair, entertaining himself by looking at a plane white wall, made of fireproof plastic. After awhile, he glanced at the clock again, but to his great disappointment not even five minutes had passed since the last time he checked it.

The biotic's eyes fell down onto a bag, standing from the left side of the table and lightening his mood by its mere existence. Kaidan also suspected that the ready bag was responsible for the time passing so slow -- it was a vivid reminder that in three hours a System Alliance passenger liner was going to pick Kaidan and bring him to the Citadel, which he hadn't seen in over a year. There he would have to wait for the arrival of the _Normandy_ , scheduled to dock at the station later the same morning. The thought of returning to the ship, which for him had become like a second home, was making Kaidan excited to the point of becoming uncomfortable.

The door leading to his office suddenly opened, like someone pushed it with their leg, and a familiar face of one of the teachers, appeared in the doorway.

"What the fuck is this shit?" was the first thing Jack said, marching towards Kaidan and throwing a data-pad on his table, right under his nose. Her face was flaring with anger.

Kaidan didn't move. He placed his elbows on the table, gathering his hands under the chin and looked the other biotic in the eyes. Jack was dressed in the alliance uniform, which was a huge progress in clothing from the previous year. Her hairstyle also changed into a more appropriate one, without any parts of her head shaved, and now it was just a neat ponytail, about shoulder length. Jack also removed most of her piercings and if not for her tattoos, which were still visible on her arms and neck, it was really difficult to recognize her. Well, at least until she was opening her mouth.

Jack stood in the middle of the office staring back at the major. Finally, she groaned and walked to the table, taking back the data-pad she had thrown there, before turning on her heel and exiting the office, closing the door behind her. A second later Kaidan heard a knock.

"Come in," the biotic called.

Jack reopened the door again, this time with her hand. She walked to the table and offered the data-pad to the major. "I came to request a clarification on the situation I find myself in... sir," she said visibly uncomfortable.

Kaidan accepted the data-pad skimming the information it held with his eyes. It was the request to a temporary assignment of Jack as a head of the biotic division program, replacing him for the time he would be absent.

"Do you consider yourself under qualified?" Kaidan inquired.

"Under qualified my as... I mean, I just don't want it. When I and my class were transferred to the HQ, they said it was a temporary measure, until Grissom Academy is restored. One year later, I'm still stuck here, forced to wear this piece of... uniform and kiss butts of everyone with a higher rank -- which is pretty much everyone." Jack sighed settling herself on the table.

"Jack, you know that Grissom Academy was lost during the war," Kaidan shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I can't really do anything about it."

"How can you lose a space station?" Jack groaned. "And now you want me to leave my kids for an unknown period of time and, instead of practicing blowing things up with them, sit here with a ton of duty rosters for..." she took the data-pad back, scrolling down through the text, "seven biotic squads spread all over the galaxy and two squads of trainees who are currently practicing teamwork in the combat simulation programs, while you fly with Shepard into the sunset," she said waving her hand before her face.

"Your commentaries are very unprofessional, Lieutenant Nought," Kaidan warned.

"Oh come on, Kaidan. I saw you drunk, dancing seductively on a table at that party we had on the Citadel," Jack grinned. "You know, I think you could do it professionally."

Kaidan felt his ears starting to burn. He hadn't even been that drunk at the moment, it was just a stupid bet he had had with Vega, who was of the opinion that the biotic was too prude to do something like a table dance.

Not to push himself into a more compromising situation, Kaidan decided to ignore the remark, returning to the matter of business.

"It's not going to be difficult, as I basically composed working plans for at least a month ahead," he reassured, "plus you're going to be compensated."

Jack laughed. "Oh, I don't care about money!" she said, "I just wonder how long will my students going to spend with someone else looming over them?"

"Jack, you know that in a year they are going to graduate and it won't matter anyway?" He asked with a sigh.

Something in Jack's face changed, making her look almost desperate. Kaidan could tell how much this thought actually bothered her. He hadn't known Jack as long as Shepard did, but he heard a lot about the time she spent as a pirate and a murderer. And now, thanks to Shepard's influence, she was not only accepted into the Alliance, but also had been promoted to a lieutenant since she started worked at the headquarters. Seeing her worrying about a class of kids was making it difficult to imagine what kind of person everyone were describing her to be, before she met the commander.

"Hey, Jack," Kaidan smiled, "did you hear, they are planning to reopen the arena on the Citadel in three months?"

The other biotic glanced at Kaidan with a small note of mischief reading in her eyes. "So, what are you saying?" she inquired.

"I'm saying that, as I'm currently responsible for every biotic training program, I might find it beneficial to send you and your students on a field trip," he proposed.

For a moment Jack looked sceptical, then suddenly she started to laugh. "Damn!" she exclaimed, "you really need to be thankful I've grown to like you and Shep. Otherwise, no way you’d manage to put me through all this alliance crap."

Jack sighed, then she climbed down from the desk and went to the exit, weaving the data-pad as she did, "all, right, Major Hot-Ass Sheplenko," she chuckled, "you can count on me not to insult the admiral on your account."

Kaidan blinked, wondering if what she said was supposed to be funny or make him worried for Admiral Hackett. He shrugged his shoulders, deciding to go with the former. Kaidan perfectly knew that if needed, Jack could behave.

Jack had nearly left Kaidan's office, before she turned again, looking more serious. "There is something big going on, isn't there?" she asked concerned.

Kaidan wasn’t sure how to answer it. Everything he knew about the mission was pointing to the fact, that there was something more to it than it looked. He shook his head, trying to keep the facade of confidence. "I don't know yet," he replied honestly.

"I wish I could go with you," Jack sighed looking up, "but hey, no matter how much cooler I am, there is no way someone could protect Shep better than you. So yeah, just keep his stupid ass safe."

Kaidan blinked, not expecting such a request coming from Jack. "Will do," he finally nodded, smiling softly.

***

Kaidan suspected that he wasn’t going to get any sleep on the way to the Citadel. The first reason was his somewhat childish excitement over the idea of returning to the midst of everything. Of course, Shepard himself was more nostalgic for the service on the _Normandy_ , but Kaidan would be lying to say he didn't miss the time they spent on board the ship. The second reason he was prepared for a sleepless night were the very uncomfortable chairs.

But surprisingly, moments after ship took off from the planet surface, Kaidan found himself drowsy, until finally he fell asleep and awoke only when they arrived.

The biotic couldn't believe his eyes when he saw how the Citadel looked. He heard about the station rebuilding quickly, but it was still impossible to even comprehend the speed and the amount of resources thrown into it. But on the other hand, if it took less than half a year to build Crucible from scratches, it didn't seem that impossible to reconstruct the Citadel to the point it was right now in a year. You just needed to have enough determination.

It was a little bit over than eight hundred hours alliance standard time, when Kiadan found himself walking down the presidium towards the Citadel Tower. On the enormous space station it was late morning, and the place looked busy, with hundreds of different people wandering about their business. Of course it still wasn't as busy as it used to be before the war, because some things were more difficult to rebuild then scorched metal and shattered glass. Still, it looked so much better than Earth right now.

Kaidan had already eaten breakfast and talked to the new human ambassador, Victoria Marborn -- an unfamiliar face, but a very perspective young politician from London. Kaidan had to admit that her first name suited her well, considering how young she looked for this position. He had heard some bits and pieces about her talent, but it was the first time he met her in person. The diplomat went straight to business as soon as Kaidan found himself in her office.

They discussed if it was needed to revoke his Specter status, considering he may not continue working as a Specter after the mission, as he already had too much on his plate. Theoretically, it was possible to maintain Specter status and coordinate with the Alliance special biotic division, but Kaidan would have to give up his personal life. And if the biotic had to chose one out of three to give up, his personal life wouldn't be it. Plus, Kaidan was going to work with another active Specter anyway. He was afraid that revoking his own status would be just a waste of time.

The ambassador had another opinion. She told Kaidan that after everything, the councilors could spent a few seconds of their precious time to press a few buttons. That was how the biotic found himself in the hall of the Citadel Tower awaiting the Councilors, while keeping an eye on the time, sure that now he was going to miss the arrival of the _Normandy_. At least the ambassador promised to detain the ship if needed.

Kaidan was standing in the middle of the tower hall, next to a fountain, when he was approached by a woman. She emerged from a small group of aliens, engaged in a conversation with two C-Sec officers.

Kaidan wasn’t sure he’d ever seen them before: they were people with pale skin with a slight purple tone to it. Their large eyes were black with white, nearly glowing irises. Their hair was of different color, but all of them had a hint of metallic tincture in it. They were extraordinary beautiful, their ears were pointed, which together with the slightly angular features of their faces was making them look like noble elves from fairy-tale stories.

The woman who approached Kaidan was stunning for the lack of better word. She moved towards Kaidan, like she knew him, smiling through a small transparent respirator mask that covered her mouth and nose. Only now did Kaidan notice that the rest of the group were wearing similar masks.

Coming face to face with the biotic, her expression changed from happy into peevish, like she was angry about something.

"How did it happen, that I stood by your side until the very end and neither you, nor Shepard have ever even given me a call that you were coming to the Citadel?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest, "you two bosh'tets!"

Kaidan felt his jaw dropping. Of course, how did he miss their clothing, which looked exactly like quarian enviro-suits. Probably, because of how much different they looked without the helmet part.

"Tali?" he surprised.

***

The official reason for the the quarian delegation was to discuss the trade possibilities with the Council space, as the harvest on Rannoch this year had been very bountiful. Kaidan could read it on Tali's face that it was not the exact reason. Yet, the quarian seemed reluctant to talk freely while in public.

Tali waited for Kaidan to finish his own business, before asking him in a very official manner to escort her to the Alliance docking bay, as she said she had something to discuss with Shepard.

At the bay, Kaidan walked towards the railing, separating the waiting area with the docks, looking through the thick glass. Surprisingly, he had managed to finish all of the business relating things and be in time here before the _Normandy_ 's scheduled arrival.

The view of the Citadel from here used to be truly breathtaking, but now the only thing Kaidan felt looking at it was sadness. It was so easy to forget about what happened a year ago, when walking around the Presidium, or looking at the station from space, but from here it was still possible to see the amount of work which needed to be done. So many spots around the five of its wards looked darker than the rest, so many areas were still in ruins.

Kaidan could see one of the wards having the entire tip connected to the rest of the station with several large bulwarks. That was the part of the Citadel separated from the rest of it after the explosion. Coincidentally, this part was also located close to the Silversun Strip, but the street itself looked functional. Kaidan wondered if there was anything left of Shepard’s apartment after the incident, and if it was possible to reclaim it.

Tali moved closer to him, leaning on the rail, looking somewhere into the distance. When he took his time, Kaidan could see that the quarian looked very tired, even unhealthy. He had asked her about it while they have been riding a cab, but the quarian had replied that it was just a minor infection. Her body was still getting used to all of the bacteria, which wasn't included to the immune busting software quarians developed from the geth technology.

"Is it really so serious, that it required you abandon your ambassador post?" Kaidan asked turning his attention to the quarian, "I mean, I understand you don't want to talk about the details while in public," he added.

"It is not that serious right now, but it might become a problem," Tali explained. "Don't worry, it’s not that I don’t trust you, I have other reasons to be keep silent," she added.

Kaidan raised an eyebrow. "Umm, I didn't think you distrusted me, honestly," he admitted with a smile.

"Just making sure," Tali nodded with a soft chuckle. "Anyway, how are things going with you and Shepard?" she asked, then suddenly her face changed, looking now like she was confused. She brought her hand to her forehead starting to scratch it, "ugh, I mean, Shepard-Alenko, I mean --"

"No, it's fine," Kaidan interrupted her, "we kinda didn't think about all of the problems that might occur after changing the name -- it was a rush decision. Still, even the Alliance brass continue to use our old surnames to avoid confusion."

"Oh, right," Tali nodded, with a sigh, "I forget sometimes that humans are more loose with names. Anyway, you still didn't answer me, how are you two?"

Kaidan managed nothing more than a standard 'we are good'. He honestly wanted to tell her about their decision to adopt a child, but stopped himself the last moment. After everything Shepard was able to find out about the kid, Kaidan was still unable to decide how he felt about the girl, especially while he knew Shepard wasn't going to give up on a child that was genetically his, even if she was born from a tank. This situation was scaring the biotic.

"And what about you and Garrus?" he asked after a short pause.

Tali's face changed again; now she looked enraged. It was still surreal to even see even her face, not to mention every vivid emotion crossing it. Under her gaze, Kaidan started to feel like running away, like she was seriously considering killing him for asking the question.

"Garrus is a dead man," she suddenly grinned. "Just let me get to him and I will ensure his suffering."

"Tali?" Kaidan called carefully, not sure what else to say.

"Ah, we are actually pretty good,” she smiled and elbowed Kaidan gently, “just a few days ago he called me, said that he caught up with Shepard and that he was going to go with him and return back in a week or so..." she sighed.

"Ouch," Kaidan shook his head.

"It is a very bad idea to piss off a girl with a shotgun," Tali smiled. Then she turned her head back towards the dock, "Hey, I think it is our ride," she added pointing out the window.

Kaidan followed the direction she was pointing at with his eyes. There, behind the thick glass, he was able to see a ship appearing in their view. He felt his breath being taken away as the familiar blue and white image of the _Normandy_ approached, ready to dock.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Shepard opened his eyes to see the vastness of stars from the small observation port on the ceiling of his cabin. He sighed, turning around to check the time and noticed that it was nearly nine hundred hours. He overslept the ship's standard alarm, but the extra hours of sleep didn't help him feel rested. In fact, the oversleeping was not only making him lightheaded, but also brought back the ache in his joints.

Shepard pushed the blankets off and sat on the bed. The sudden movement echoed through his head with excruciating pain, making him gasp for air. The entire room seemed to go black for a second, before he was finally able to take control of himself again. The pain was gone as quickly as it came, and if not for a bitter taste of iron in his mouth, it almost seemed like it had never been there.

Shepard sighed, standing from the bed, carefully in case any additional movements would bring the unpleasant sensation back. After confirming that it was gone, he moved to the bathroom to take a quick shower and brush his teeth. There, he looked at himself in the mirror, noticing a small stream of drying blood under his nose. He hurried to wash the blood away, like it was something shameful and reached for the cabinet with a mirror door built into the wall to extract a tube of toothpaste.

Shepard opened the case, taking the tube and started to slide the door back. When he looked at the mirror again, Shepard gasped noticing another figure in the reflection. It was the woman with long hair and blue eyes from his dream, standing behind the commander. Shepard turned on his heel to look around, but found himself staring at an empty spot. When he turned back to the mirror, breathing heavily, the woman was no longer there.

Shepard stepped away from the sink, resting his bare back against the cool metal of the bathroom wall, trying to understand what was going on with him, if he was going crazy. At first it was only nightmares, then it also turned into hallucinations. Shepard heard something about disorders after psychological traumas and how repeating similar conditions could trigger reactions like that. He definitely needed to go to the sick bay, to ask Doctor Sonars for a check up.

Shepard sighed rubbing his forehead. If there were any psychological problems, he most likely would be considered not fit for duty. The committee would order him to return to Earth and take away his ship again. In any other circumstances he would agree on that, because he understood that in his condition he was putting the mission at risk, but he couldn't back off now, not from this mission.  

"Hey, Commander," Shepard heard Joker's voice coming through the intercom, "EDI said that you woke up -- finally -- so I just wanted to tell you, that we are arriving at the Citadel. ETA twenty minutes."

"Understood," the commander breathed out, moving back to the sink to finish the morning routine.

***

The closed space of the _Normandy_ was making Shepard uneasy. He'd never experienced anything like this before, feeling absolutely comfortable on board of his own ship, but the aftermath of the vivid nightmare was lingering in his memory, making him want to crawl out of his own skin. Shepard needed a distraction, something to turn his thoughts away from the images he'd seen.

The stop at the Citadel was planned to be a short one, still, Shepard had at least an hour he could spend outside the ship, walking around the docks in attempt to get his mind off the events of the morning.

The distraction came from the most unexpected place.

It was impossible to hide the surprise and excitement of seeing Kaidan at the docking bay. At first, Shepard couldn't even believe his eyes, afraid that the biotic could be just another hallucination, caused by his need of having his husband by his side. As the distance between them shortened, he realized that it wasn't the case. Kaidan was real, dressed in his usual alliance uniform and holding a duffel bag behind his shoulder, smiling. Shepard didn't even notice the quarian standing next to him at first, but when he did, his own smile widened.

Shepard wanted to run towards them, to embrace them both at the same time, because it was exactly what he needed right now. He had to take a hold of himself, as he didn't want to look unprofessional in front of so many alliance soldiers wandering around the docking bay.

Instead, he approached them, saluting Tali first, as she had a higher rank. "Admiral," he greeted his friend, then he nodded turning to his husband "Major." Tali smiled slightly and bowed her head and Kaidan saluted Shepard back.

"Permission to come aboard, Commander?" Kaidan asked seriously, even if it was possible to see a playful smirk playing on his face.

"Permission granted, Major," Shepard replied.

***

No matter how bad Shepard wanted to spend some time alone with Kaidan, he couldn't do it right away, as the presence of the quarian admiral wasn't a social visit. The first thing she did, was request a private audience with both of the Specters. The best place for it was Shepard's own quarters, so the three of them took the elevator to the deck one.

"Oh, keelah..." Tali exhaled when they were finally alone. "I apologize for my sudden appearance and formal behavior," she said.

"Tali, you know that almost everyone on my crew knows you and you can be yourself around them?" Shepard encouraged. "Just relax a little."

Tali sighed again, moving past the commander and the major to the living area of the quarters. "Then, I hope you don't mind me having a seat. I've been on my feet for hours," she explained settling herself on the couch. "Plus, I managed to catch another cold not so long ago."

"Are you sure you should be on your feet, sick?" Shepard inquired concerned, "I can ask our new medical officer to look at you."

"That is ok," Tali shook her head, "I'm getting infected less and less often and it's not as bad. Soon I might even breathe without my respirator."

Shepard glanced at Kaidan, as he moved towards the lockers, placing his duffel bag inside. The commander knew how much Kaidan didn't like to leave bags unpacked, but he was too polite to simply start going through his belongings in front of anyone, even if they were very close friends.

The commander looked at Tali again. He had seen her face before and he recognized her the moment he saw her, but it was still unusual. A nice kind of unusual, even if the quarian looked tired because of her cold.

"So, what is bothering you?" Shepard inquired.

Tali remained silent for a moment looking at one of the walls, "is it that obvious?" she asked, "I mean, that something was bothering me" she clarified seeing the commander's confusion.

"It is, actually," Shepard admitted.

"One of many drawbacks of not wearing the helmets," Tali explained, "quarians have never had a need to control their facial expressions before, no-one could see them anyway. Now we keep forgetting about it."

"That is not so bad, considering the positive sides," Kaidan chuckled walking toward the couch and taking a seat on the opposite from Tali side, "I mean I had no idea quarians were so... so gorgeous."

This time Tali laughed: "yeah, Garrus told me we are making the asari jealous," she joked. Then her face changed to a serious one again. "Anyway, I think you would like to finally know why I'm here," she said.

Shepard nodded in response taking a seat next to Kaidan, but not close enough to be distracted.

"After the war was over," Tali started, "we returned back to Rannoch to rebuild. Most of the old quarian cities laid in ruins or were reconstructed by the geth to suite their needs, so we sent out expeditions to different cities to find which ones were more intact to start rebuilding them first. In one of those cities, one of the teams had discovered something like a large hub underground and it was filled with at least several hundreds of intact geth."

"What?" Kaidan surprised, "you mean, not all of the geth vanished during the war?"

"No," Tali shook her head, "It turned out, the main purpose of those hubs was to build new geth platforms. I'm not sure how it was possible, considering the geth were sharing consensus, but looks like those geth were offline when the Crucible fired. Now, they are not only intact, but fully functional."

"Isn't it a good thing?" Shepard asked.

Tali lowered her head, "they started to attack us," she said with a bitter voice, "they killed nearly everyone from the expedition team and those who managed to escape died days later. Even our boosted immune system can't protect us yet when the bacteria comes into an open wound if the treatment isn't received in the first several hours."

"I'm... sorry, Tali," Shepard sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe those geth simply don't know that the war is over?" Kaidan proposed after a pause.

"Maybe, but there is no way we could communicate with them. A question of destroying the entire hub was raised. Three out of five admirals voted for it. I and Admiral Zaal'Koris convinced Admiral Shala'Raan to wait, to present the situation to the Council as we are now officially considered a member," Tali explained. "But as you're here, I thought I could also try asking you for help."

"What do you want me to do?" Shepard inquired without even thinking, ignoring Kaidan tensing visibly next to him.

"Shepard... I," Tali looked the commander in the eyes, "I'm sorry for asking again, after everything you have done for my people. Please understand that you can refuse -- a small geth hub isn't much of a threat for us if we choose to destroy it. A single explosion above their heads will collapse the entire construction, but --"

"But you want to try saving them," Shepard finished her sentence.

"Yes," Tali nodded, "after talking to Legion, I understood how much it was our fault the war with the geth began. If there is a slight chance to convince those geth that we don't want to fight anymore, that we are ready to share the planet, I really want to take it."

"Is there anyone of your people who could do it?" Kaidan inquired carefully, so it didn't sound like he was weary of the idea. Shepard knew his husband wasn't particularly happy that someone was trying to convince Shepard to risk his life again. It looked like the fact that Kaidan had to mourn the commander twice made him very protective. Thankfully, Kaidan kept this protectiveness on a reasonable level.

"The admirals are afraid that any quarian trying to even come close to the geth will meet the same fate as the expedition team. The geth spend all of the time inactive and we have a theory that they have some sort of security protocol, which reacts on quarians only, but we can't tell for sure."

Shepard turned his head to his husband locking in an eye-contact with him, asking for a silent opinion. Kaidan seemed unsure for a moment, but then nodded in response.

"I will help you," Shepard promised.

"Thank you," Tali smiled, "there is no way our people will ever be able to repay you for everything you have done," she said standing up.

"You don't have to. I would’ve done something earlier, if I knew there was a chance to save at least some of the geth," Shepard reassured.

"All right," Tali nodded, "now, if you don't mind, I will go and see how Garrus is doing," she admitted with a smile.

She stood from the couch and moved towards the door. Shepard could see her swaying a little.

"Tali, wait," he said standing from the couch himself, "I think I should escort you to the med bay."

"No, really," Tali shook her head, "please don't. I took too much of your time already."

"Tali..." Shepard pushed.

"Ugh, alright, I will go to the med bay, but I am able to get there myself," she said and exited the quarters.

After the door behind the quarian closed, Shepard sat back on the couch, turning to Kaidan. His husband was eyeing the commander with sad eyes, full of uncertainness, worry, concern, but not disapproval and it was everything Shepard needed to see.

Kaidan facial expression softened and a ghost of smile crossed his features. He reached for Shepard, touching the stubble of his cheek with a thumb of his right hand, making the commander close his eyes and relax.

Shepard was worried about Tali and the geth, but his need to be closer to Kaidan since the morning was overwhelming. He moved closer to his husband on the narrow couch, leaning into his touch. Here, in the privacy of his quarters, he could embrace Kaidan, resting his head on the biotic’s shoulder, inhaling the familiar aroma of his skin. One of Shepard's hands went to rest on Kaidan's knee.

"I missed you," Shepard murmured against Kaidan's neck.

"I missed you too," Kaidan replied turning to face the commander, kissing him tenderly on the cheek.

Shepard's hand went up the Kaidan's leg towards his thigh, making the other man exhale loudly.

"I've heard we are stuck on the Citadel for another half an hour and our presence isn't really needed down the CIC," Kaidan chuckled softly.

"I suppose we could find something to do while waiting," Shepard agreed tugging his husband for a kiss.

The tempo of their action changed from tender to nearly desperate. Kaidan wasn't wasting a single moment. Still kissing the commander, he reached between their bodies, starting to work on Shepard's belts and zippers, trying to get him out of clothes as fast as he could. Shepard leaned back, starting to fall on the couch, tugging Kaidan after himself. His own hands went straight for Kaidan's firm buttocks, starting to knead them through the fabric of the alliance uniform pants.

"Shepard," EDI's voice suddenly sounded through the intercom, making the both of them freeze in place.

"Did..." Shepard exhaled, trying to hold his voice even, "did I forget to activate the privacy protocol?"

"Yeah, you totally did," Kaidan whispered in a slightly frustrated tone.

"Well, it's not like you left me an opening," the commander whispered back.

"Oh, now it is my fault?"

"What, no dirty jokes about openings? And here I did my best trying to make an implication."

Kaidan looked at the commander confused.

"Nevermind," Shepard chuckled quietly. "What is it, EDI?" Shepard asked then out loud.

"There has been a hacking attempt on the ship," EDI informed. "And, for the future reference, I have digitally enhanced hearing. Next time you don't have to bother to whisper."

***

It was a small device, not bigger then a green pea, laying on the table of the briefing room. Shepard reached for it, bringing it closer to his eyes and examining the bug. It was round, made of silvery metal and absolutely smooth. If Shepard found it on the ship himself, he would have never even suspected it to be a device of some sort at all, rather he would think it was just piece of metal with an unknown purpose.

"This device seems quite sophisticated," EDI said walking closer to the commander. "When inactive it appears to be undetectable by scanners: it doesn't emit any radio signals, heat or sounds. It was activated from somewhere outside the ship and immediately started to upload the Alliance security codes to a remote server."

"Was it possible to find the location of the server?" Shepard asked.

"Unfortunately, no," EDI replied, "I either could have given the virus enough time to upload the codes to track the signal, or block the transmission. I'm sorry."

"It's ok, EDI, you did good," Shepard reassured.

"There is something else, Commander," Specialist Traynor added, offering Shepard a data-pad, "I requested the specifications on the bugs found at the Alliance HQ approximately a week ago, turns out they are exactly the same."

Shepard skimmed through the data-pad, looking at the specifications. There hadn't been anything especially extraordinary about them. It wasn't an undiscovered technology of any sort, but it meant that whoever bugged the headquarters was able to somehow sneak those things to the _Normandy_.  

"How and when did it appear on board of the ship?" Shepard sighed finally, placing the data-pad on the table.

Traynor looked around the room, like she was trying to find something in here which could help her to answer that. EDI just kept looking at Shepard, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"Unknown..." the AI said.

***

EDI reassured that all of the bugs onboard the ship were located and disabled. Still, they had to invite a team of specialists to search throughout the ship. The procedure was going to take the rest of the day. Shepard himself couldn't speed the process even if he volunteered to help the specialists personally.

On the other hand it was a perfect time to spend with his husband, but he had to allow full access to the captain's quarters to the specialist team, which stripped him out of such possibility. That was how the two of them found themselves outside the ship, next to a rapid transport platform.

"Any ideas where we could head to?" Kaidan inquired.

"Yeah, I had some thoughts about it for some time," Shepard nodded, opening the car door, inviting his husband in.

***

Most of the Silversun strip was still closed for repairs after the Citadel explosion, but it looked reconstructed enough, considering the majority of the establishment situated here were private proprieties of independent businessmen. Those who still had enough resources after the war, made it their priority to return their businesses back to life.

The living sector of the area on the other hand, looked absolutely abandoned, with windows broken in most of the apartments on the the side facing the street. Only three of the apartment windows seemed to have the lights on.

Sheard skimmed the raw of windows, finding the one which belonged to him. Surprisingly, it was the only window on the floor with the glass still intact.

The lock on the apartment door was jammed and didn't work, so Shepard had to spend some extra time trying to fix it, before the two of them were finally able to step into the apartment, turning the lights on.

Beside the terrible stench of mold and decay they could smell from the very first moment the door opened, they were also greeted by a holographic message coming from a small recorder laying on the floor. It looked like the recorder was placed there already after the Citadel was returned back to the Widow System.

An image of asari with her arms crossed over her chest gave them a cold intimidating look. The commander raised his eyebrows recognizing her.

"I don't care who you are," Aria said coldly, "I don't care if you a member of any gang, merc organization or just on your own, but if you dare to loot this place, you will have to deal with me personally. The things I will do to you, will make you beg for death."

With this the recorded message ended.

"That's Aria from Omega, isn't it?" Kaidan hummed picking the device from the ground.

"Yeah," Shepard confirmed, "nice to know she cares," he chuckled looking around the place.

Shepard wasn't sure if the warning from Aria herself helped to ward the looters, because of how messy it was. Everything that could be detached from from shelves or floor was laying on the ground: there were books, broken glass, kitchen appliances, pieces of broken furniture. On the corner of the apartment was lying the piano with three of it's legs broken, the couches next to the fireplace were thrown to the side with some of the wooden logs scattered around them.

"Looks like gravity was nearly as destructive as looters could have been," Kaidan sighed walking further into the apartment and starting to pick up the books from the floor.

Shepard meanwhile, moved into the kitchen, opening the door of the refrigerator and hurrying to close it back the next moment. "I think, I found the source of the stench," he sighed.

"I saw some respirators in one of the drawers in the master bedroom upstairs," Kaidan echoed from the hall, placing the books back on the shelves above the fireplace.

The master bedroom smelled even worse than the refrigerator, as the entire content of the hot tub flew away from the bathroom and splashed over the bedroom floor. The water itself was long gone, but the parquette on the floor bulged and the mattress on the bed was covered with dried out mold.

"That's a lot of work," Shepard heard Kaidan's statement from behind his back.

"Yeah," Shepard agreed, "I think, we'll have to replace all of the furniture."

For a moment Kaidan was quiet, "do you want us to move to the Citadel?" he asked finally. Shepard couldn't hear much enthusiasm in his husband's voice.

"Not really," he admitted.

Of course this apartment was at least two times bigger than the one they had back on Earth, but for some reason, the Citadel had never felt like home for the commander. Granted, there were many good memories connected with the place itself, but they were not enough to convince Shepard to live here.

"I just thought we could clean it up and use as a summer house of sort," Shepard explained, "or a base of operation for parties," he added with a soft chuckle.

"Right, because we visited so many parties last year," Kaidan nodded, taping the commander on the shoulder.

The next hour and a half they spent cleaning the place in silence. It was impossible to finish it in one day, but at least they threw away the rotten food from the fridge and swiped the floor on the kitchen, hall and the living room. Together they turned the couch from the side, so now it was standing back on its feet. They temporarily turned it to face the large window and settled on it to have a break.

The atmosphere outside the window still reminded of earthen sunset, with the soft yellow and orange lights shining through the shutters, illuminating the room. A year ago it was possible to see the lights of the street below, but now it was dark. There were way less sky cars passing by the window, which was making it quiet. It seemed very peaceful if Shepard didn’t stop to think about the reasons behind this tranquility.

"Do you think it was the right thing to do?" Shepard asked after moments they spent in silence, holding each other in their arms, "accepting Tali's request, I mean. What if we fail and I'll have to destroy the geth?" He wanted to add 'again', but decided against it.

Kaidan sighed, rubbing one of his husband's shoulder. Shepard knew that the other man remembered how much guilt and remorse the commander felt after the war. With time those wounds started to heal like the ones on Shepard's body, allowing him to live fully again, to feel happy, but the news Tali brought, seemed to reopen them again like a blade of a sharp knife.

"You'd feel worse if you refused," Kaidan said after a moment of contemplation, "I know you'll figure this one out," he reassured.

"You didn't seem enthusiastic about it when we spoke to Tali," Shepard reminded.

Kaidan turned to look Shepard in the eyes, smiling softly. "I didn't," he nodded, "but then I remembered, that I was going to be with you," he said leaning closer to the commander to place a chaste kiss on his lips, "I've got your back."

 


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Shepard stood above the galaxy map, leaning on the metal banister in front of it, looking at two spots blinking at him from the holographic surface. He didn't know how much time he'd spent here, trying to determine the course of action, not able to decide which destination needed prioritising.

Shepard checked the calendar on his omni-tool. Four days ago councilor Tevos asked him to deal with the krogan situation, explaining that she could keep it under control for a week. It was leaving him three days to do something about it. Shepard also had only three days to get to Rannoch, otherwise the admirals of the quarian fleet would destroy the geth hub. He understood that a full grown krogan rebellion was worse than the extermination of a species, especially while everyone still considered them to be already extinct. Choosing krogan before geth was a logical thing to do, even if the commander still felt guilty about it.

Another reason to choose dealing with Wrex first was the chance fix both of the problems. The route to Tuchanka was going to take less than a day, plus the travel time to Rannoch from Tuchanka was going to take approximately the same amount of time. Shepard didn't need more than a day to convince Wrex, so theoretically he should have been able to be in time at both of the locations.

It would have been easier, if they hadn't been stuck on the Citadel for so long that day, but Shepard couldn't do anything about it. With the bugs EDI found on board, it was better to be safe than sorry.

The commander moved his eyes from the blinking spot on top of the map to the one closer to the middle, reaching for it with his hand. He stopped for a moment, his finger nearly touching the map surface, as he spared one final glance to the other marked location, before sighing and pressing his finger into the map. The image of the galaxy changed, zooming into the chosen star system, allowing the commander to pick the planet. Shepard watched how the coordinates of Tuchanka appeared on the screen and, after Shepard's final approval, were sent to the cockpit.

***

During the war Shepard had never had much free time. Piles of reports and loads of calculations of tactics and strategies were keeping him occupied until exhaustion got the best of him, making him fall asleep over paperwork, or until Kaidan reminding that the lack of rest would make him collapse on the battlefield.

Without the war, there were still plenty of work, but every now and then Shepard was finding himself with hours of free time and nothing to occupy himself, but going through the same reports over and over, rewriting the same lines which didn't really needed to be rewritten, in attempt to make them sound better.

Shepard glanced at the clock, noticing that it was almost dinner time. Then he moved his eyes to Kaidan, looking at him through the glass case which at some point was filled with ship models, but now was empty, as what was left of his collection was now moved to their apartment. Kaidan was sitting in the living area, behind the second table, which the commander cleaned up to give to his husband as his own working place, looking at the screen of his terminal.

"You want to go and grab a bite?" Shepard asked, leaning back on his chair, stretching.

"In a few," Kaidan replied not even turning his head, "go ahead, I'll join you," he added waving his hand.

Shepard stood up, moving towards the exit. Before he even had time to step outside the room, Kaidan called him out, his eyes still glued to the personal terminal screen, "uh, could you microweave me one, please?" he asked as a matter of fact.

"Sure, any preference?" Shepard inquired.

This time Kaidan turned his head eyeing the commander with a grin, "the one with freshly baked beef steak, mashed potatoes which made from actual potatoes and a bottle of cold beer, of course," he smirked sarcastically.

"Right," Shepard laughed, turning to the door.

"Thanks," Kaidan echoed behind his back.

Waiting for the elevator to arrive to the first deck, Shepard smiled to himself thinking how surreal it was to be so utterly domestic even here, on the _Normandy_. He nearly stopped paying attention to it after the time they lived together, but when they were both back on the ship, it was striking how much everything changed. Back then, when they had a war to worry about, their relationship had been different. It was a never-ending struggle with decisions of what was allowed for both of them and what wasn't: how many nights a week Kaidan could bunk with the commander and how many personal things he could leave in the captain's cabin, so he wouldn't look pushy; how much time they could spend together, before it could become a distraction from work; how close they were allowed to stand to each-other while in public, before the extranet would fill up with rumors about first two human specters.

Now their life together had became as natural as breathing. Shepard could do things simply because he could. Things like jumping out the elevator right before the door had time to shut close, stepping back into his quarters, striding towards Kaidan with bold steps, leaning in and sealing their lips together the moment Kaidan’s head turned to look at the commander, silencing him before he could even ask why Shepard returned back and then just leaving the quarters again without giving any explanation.

***

"You should've stayed home!" Shepard heard Garrus, before he was able to see him. "You have a fever, what if something will happen to you?"

The turian was standing in the mess above Tali, who sat at the table, with his hands crossed on his chest, looking irritated.

"That is not true!" Tali protested, "I've had worse fevers in my life and could still work."

"And you were wrong. And no-one was there to take care of you," Garrus was pushing.

Shepard walked towards the arguing couple nodding at the both of them. "Am I intruding?" he asked tentatively.

Garrus looked up, noticing the commander. "No, not at all," he shook his head.

"We actually thought, we finished this conversation in private, but then it popped back up again," Tali supported with a heavy sigh. She moved her small cup of dextro mix to the straw connected to the respirator, taking a sip out of it. "Although, it is funny how I came aboard pissed at Garrus for disappearing on me without a word and it turned out he just did it so I wouldn't convince you to take me back to the ship and stayed on the Citadel," she added with a soft chuckle.

Shepard took a seat on the opposite side of the table, looking over his friends. He noticed Garrus' mandibles twitch, but other than that, the turian was remaining immovable, like a stone fu-lion, ready to come to life and tear apart anyone threatening his charge. Shepard could never imagine Garrus in a relationship to be so overprotective -- perhaps even more protective than Kaidan -- but on another hand it wasn't like he ever tried to imagine Garrus in a relationship.

The commander moved his eyes to Tali.  She still looked very tired, with dark circles under her eyes visible even in a dim light of the mess hall. It was worse then when he saw her in the morning. Seeing her condition, he started to doubt the decision on allowing her to come onboard.

"Tali, are you sure about it?" Shepard asked.

"How am I suppose to improve my immune system if I keep staying home in a sanitary bubble? It's like going back into my enviro-suit," the quarian sighed, shaking her head.

Garrus stayed tense for another moment, before his eyes finally softened. He stepped closer to Tali, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, all right," he said, "you're right. I know you even fought while sick, just promise you won't go into any battles like this again."

Shepard saw Tali smiling and turning to Garrus, covering the turian’s hand on her shoulder with her own. "I wasn't planning to," she admitted.

The two of them looked at each other with such a care, that Shepard started to feel absolutely out of place, intruding into something so private. Thankfully, he was pulled out of this awkward for him situation by Kaidan who chose this moment to appear in the mess. The biotic stopped for a second looking at the couple, like he wasn't sure if he should proceed. Then he noticed Shepard.

"Having a double date in the mess?" he chuckled softly, before moving to the table and taking a seat next to his husband.

"Something like that," Shepard nodded, smiling at Kaidan.

As it was dinner time, many people started to show up and soon the room sunk into a pleasant rumble of quiet conversations. Shepard rarely had an opportunity to have his meals on time, so it seemed like a good change.

About twenty minutes later, the commander's plate was empty, yet he felt no rush to leave, listening to Vega's story about some girl who kicked his ass, almost shooting him when his team was cleaning the rubbles in Vancouver,  as she thought Vega was a looter trying to steal her things.

The major was describing the situation vividly, gesticulating with his hands during the important parts, making short pauses to allow people to laugh or insert a remark. Enthralled into the conversation, no-one even noticed the door to medical bay open.

"Tali, I need to talk to you, it is really important," Shepard heard Sonars’ voice. He turned his head and noticed the doctor standing from the left side of him. An air of frustration was written over her face as she spoke not even tearing her eyes from the data-pad she was holding.

"Amy?" Shepard heard Kaidan's surprised voice.

The doctor looked up and opened her mouth in surprise. She looked really startled and lost seeing him.

"Whoa," Kaidan continued with a smile, but Shepard could see that his husband was a little uncomfortable himself. "I... uh, didn't expect to meet you here."

"Well, and I should have expected it," Sonars sighed turning her head away.

For moment a dead silence hung over the mess hall. It looked like everyone present here just stopped eating and talking and turned their attention to the doctor and the biotic. It seemed like no-one had a clue about what was going on, but the tension in the air was so thick, that Shepard could practically taste it.

"It is... good to see you, Amy," Kaidan nodded finally.

"Likewise," Sonars nodded back, but it was possible to tell, that unlike Kaidan, she wasn't even trying to pretend to be happy about the unexpected meeting.

"You came here with a reason, doctor?" Shepard inquired, trying to turn the conversation to the matter of business, to decrease the growing tension.

"Yes," Sonars agreed, turning back to the quarian, "Tali, please, would you come with me?" She asked.

Tali looked over the people in the mess, stopping her glance at Kaidan and Shepard, then she carefully stood from the chair. "Umm, alright," she nodded stepping closer to the doctor, following her to the medical bay.

Shepard watched the quarian leave, noting that she was swaying a little, before turned his attention back to Kaidan, giving his husband a questioning look. "Do you know our medical officer?" he inquired.

"Umm, can we talk about it later?" Kaidan asked with a note of pleading reading in his tone, then he returned his attention to an almost empty plate, trying to look nowhere else, poking the last bean-pod with his fork, like he wasn't sure if he wanted to eat it or not.

Shepard could see clearly as day how much the biotic was troubled. He opened his mouth to propose returning to the captain's cabin, but suddenly he heard a soft thump from the direction of medical bay.

"Tali!" He heard Garrus exclaiming and turned his head towards the direction the noise came from.

There, on the floor, right before the door to the sick bay laid Tali. Doctor Sonars had already turned towards the quarian descending on her knees trying to figure out what happened, checking the girl's pulse.

Shepard was on his feet momentarily, but Garrus somehow was there first, reaching for his lover, picking her from the cold floor. Behind Shepard, there was Kaidan who started to stand from his chair at the same time as Shepard did and the rest of people present in the mess hall at the moment, walking towards the unconscious quarian, worried.

"Take her to the med bay," Doctor Sonars ordered, "on the table, here," she pointed as they entered the room.

Garrus placed Tali on one of the beds with care and the next moment was pushed away by the doctor, who started to connect the bed to the sensors above it. "Now, please get out," she asked when the quarian was secured in the medical bed.

***

Twenty minutes later the mess hall began to empty. There still were several people finishing their dinners, but most of them had returned to their posts. The members of Shepard's squad who were present during the accident, except for Kaidan and Garrus, asked to keep them informed about Tali's condition and left, leaving the three standing under the door of the medical bay, waiting for any news.

Garrus, of course, was affected the most. He kept pacing before the door, mumbling under his breath how it was his fault for not taking better care of Tali, for disappearing without a word instead of putting more effort into talking her out from going anywhere sick.

"Garrus," Shepard called the turian, "you know, that no-one could predict it. Beating yourself up won't help."

"I could've predicted it, I could've talk to you about it, could've asked you to convince her to stay home," Garrus denied.

"You could," Shepard agreed, "but in this case, it could've happened on the Citadel, while no-one was around. That would’ve been worse."

Garrus stopped mid step, turning his head to Shepard, contemplating. "You're right," he nodded, "it is for the best it happened here. Sorry, I just --"

The door to the medical bay opened, interrupting Garrus. Sonars appeared before them, looking serious, and somewhat worried, which wasn't really a good sign.

"Doctor, how is she?" Garrus asked.

"She is fine for now, I managed to stabilize her condition," Sonars replied to the turian. "I just need to talk to you. Would you prefer privacy?" she asked looking at two other men standing before the med bay.

"No," Garrus shook his head, "Tali is their friend, as well as they are my friends. There is no need for secrecy."

"Very well then," Sonars said, inviting the three of them into the sick bay.

Inside, Shepard saw Tali peacefully sleeping on the bed, the sensors next to the bed were indicating that her life signs were absolutely normal, which made Shepard relax.

"Well, I don't even know where to start," Doctor Sonars sighed leaning on her working table.

"From the beginning," Garrus proposed.

“Not sure I want to go that far," she sighed, then turned her head to the sleeping frame on the bed, "first of all, I need to say that Tali isn't actually sick, although her condition is in fact caused by an alien organism growing inside her --"

"Is it some sort of a parasite?" Garrus interrupted, "what should we do to get rid of it?"

"I don't think you quite understand the implication." Sonars replied, rubbing her forehead, "She is pregnant," she explained.

Garrus opened his mouth, taking a step backwards. He blinked several times moving his eyes from the doctor to his sleeping lover and back. "Oh..." he managed after a while, "oh."

To tell the truth, Shepard was as much surprised to hear it as Garrus was. He knew that most of the aliens were too different to be able to produce offsprings, that is why he had never seen any half-breeds, even with the fact how many different species practiced sexual relationship between each-other.

"Is it... is it even possible?" Garrus asked finally.

"Well, it is the very first case that I know of," Sonars nodded looking at Tali, "but theoretically... both turian and quarian came from the worlds built on dextro-amino acids, which could have been the reason her body recognised the seminal fluid as of quarian."

"I..." Garrus whispered looking very uncomfortable, "this is so difficult to believe."

"It is," Sonars agreed, "that is why what I will say right now is going to be difficult to hear."

Garrus raised his head looking at the doctor. "I'm listening," he said.

"There have been no other precedents of quarian and turian conception before. The DNA structures of both races are very different and Tali's body is trying to reject the fetus. Her weak immune system was the only factor which kept it alive, but still, it is extremely weak and there is little chance it will survive." Sonars sighed, closing her eyes, "I'm sorry."

Shepard saw his friend opening his mouth again. The turian tensed visibly, and the commander could read fear and sorrow in his eyes. The unpleasant news left the commander shaken, he could only imagine how it was effecting his friend. "Is there anything we can do?" Shepard asked.

Doctor Sonars turned to the commander, "I don't know..." she admitted after a pause, "we need to take her to Rannoch, perhaps their medics know of a possible treatment."

Garrus looked at Shepard as well, silently asking for the permission. Shepard locked his eyes with the turian, nodding in agreement. "EDI," he called, "tell Joker to change course, we are heading to Rannoch."


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

The Tikkun sun was high in it's zenith; the dry desert air was making it difficult to breath even through a double filter of the enviro-suit and the heat radiating from the rocky ground was noticeable even through thick soles, making it difficult to walk for too long. Still, it was a wonder how much discomfort a person could ignore if they had enough determination, a reason which kept them going.

Jona stopped before a large open valley, looking ahead. There, nearly on the line of the horizon, it was possible to see gray outlines of an old city, abandoned for over three hundred years. He checked the readings from his omni-tool. The radiation in this part of the desert was minimal, not dangerous for life, but the high temperature was going to make it difficult to cross the valley in the middle of the day. That is why the quarian decided to wait until the night fall, having enough water to last and some vegetation on the edge of the valley to provide shade.

Jona picked the largest tree in the area to hide under it's rich brown foliage and settled on the ground under it. It was a nice spot, a good vantage point with a view on the entire valley. The place was also surrounded by rock formations from two sides, providing with an additional level of safety.

Jona sighed, leaning on the tree trunk. He pulled an arc pistol holstered to his leg, examining it's smooth white surface. It felt heavy in his hand, but the weight was giving a sense of security, making him more confident in his plan. Over the seventeen years of his life, he had held many pistols, helping his mother in the engineering lab, but he had never pointed one on a living being.

He shivered, shaking his head. No, geth were not living beings. They were monsters, machines who killed first his mother and then his father. Because of them he had been sent to the ship of his uncle who didn't even want to talk to him; because of them he had lost everything.

And now Jona heard that the geth had returned. The conclave was doing everything to hide it, to convince everyone that the accident with the scout team wasn't connected to geth, that it was simply meaningless rumors, but the Jona wasn't going to take any chances. Tonight, he was going to cross the deserted valley, reach the old city and find the truth on his own. He hadn’t yet known what he would do there, if he would be able to destroy at least one geth, but he didn't care. He knew that it was only a one way trip, but he was prepared to die fighting an enemy who left him with nothing in this life.

Bushes near him shook making Jona jump on the place. He was still too far away from the city and doubted that it was geth, but there were plenty wild predators in the area. He pointed his pistol at the source of the noise expecting an attack. For a moment everything was quiet, almost as if the rustle was just in his imagination, but soon the noise repeated again, closer this time.

Jona felt a droplet of sweat rolling down his temple under the helmet of his suit, "who is there?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice even, trying not to express fear which was consuming him from inside. He couldn't die now, couldn't be killed by a wild animal -- he had a higher mission to accomplish.

The bushes were drawn apart and a humanoid silhouette appeared before him. Jona lowered his gun seeing another man in an enviro-suit standing in front of him. "You scared me!" he groaned.

"We... I..." the second quarian grunted, before falling to his knees.

Jona rushed to the other man scanning him with the omni-tool. The second quarian was severely dehydrated and suffered a heat stroke.

"Here, let me help you," Jona said, extracting his flask and connecting it to the slot in the helmet of the stranger.

The other man made a small sip and stopped still, before he started to drink with a greed, emptying the flask in a matter of seconds. He then sighed content and moved closer to his savior, placing his hands on the young quarian's shoulders, trying to use them for leverage to stand, but instead he pushed Jona back, falling on top of him. The younger quarian lost his balance falling backwards to the ground. His buttocks ached with pain as he landed, but the weight of the other man on him was distracting. They were so close, that Jona could feel the warmth of another's body even though both of their suits, the hands on his shoulders were pinning him to the ground, making it impossible to move, the pair of another glowing eyes were so close to his face that it was making his breath hitch.

Jona’s heart started to beat faster and a wave of heat enveloped his neck and cheeks as he felt himself blushing. "What are you doing?" he exclaimed, pushing the other quarian from himself, surprised how alien his own voice sounded.

The unexpected visitor rolled to the side with a loud 'nghh' and suddenly stopped moving. Jona moved closer again, realizing that he was unconscious.

 

***  

Shepard was fully aware that he was taking a risk by changing his course. He was confident he could trust Wrex and Bakara, but who could give a guarantee that some of the more hot-blooded younglings wouldn't try to do something stupid, being discontent with the political situation. Shepard shook his head. No, it was wrong to doubt krogan, because if he would start doubting their loyalty, he would start doubting his decision about the genophage. Shepard knew that he did the right thing.

Just in case, the commander wrote a mail to Wrex, asking him to calm down and wait until Shepard arrive. It was a terrible diplomatic move if Shepard was dealing with anyone but Wrex, but he knew the leader of Urdnot was going to listen to him even in a form of a short message.

Shepard received a reply within a half-hour after he sent the original message. In the reply Wrex pointing out that the counselors were overreacting and that krogan were too busy dealing with own problems to start any war campaigns any time soon, unless it was the only option to make Shepard come visit.

Relieved, the commander glanced at his husband who was sitting on the bed with a data-pad. Shepard could see that even if Kaidan’s eyes were on the text, his mind was somewhere else. With a sigh, he moved to the other section, leaning on the small staircase banister, holding his arms crossed over his chest.

"Are you alright?" Shepard asked.

Kaidan looked up, slightly startled, "I'm fine," he shook his head, "I’m just worried about Tali," he admitted.

"Yeah, me too," Shepard nodded, "I'm planning to go down to the med bay to check on the progress. Garrus texted me, saying she woke up. Do you want to come with me?" he asked.

Kaidan turned his head away. He looked very uncomfortable. "I... umm..." he tried to say something rubbing the back of his neck.

"All right, what is going on?" Shepard sighed moving further into the quarters and taking a seat on the couch. "It's about Doctor Sonars, isn't it?" he asked. "How do you know her?"

Kaidan looked at the commander, an air of guilt crossing his features. "I've mentioned her before," he admitted with a sigh. "You know, the doctor I met at HQ," he added after Shepard gifted him with a confused look.

Shepard could practically hear the gears turning inside his head. Of course, why didn't he realize it sooner? Everything pointing on how Kaidan knew Sonars was there, under the commander's nose the entire time: the weird concoctions she was making him drink, her interest in human biotics. Shepard even understood now why she was so reluctant to serve on the _Normandy_ at the first place.

Some time ago, Shepard asked Kaidan what he had been doing during the two years the commander spent in the Cerberus facility. The biotic mentioned his unsuccessful attempt to date a doctor he met at the Alliance headquarters and who soon moved to work to the Citadel.

"Oh wow," Shepard nodded, "I don't even know what to say."

"Yeah," Kaidan nodded, "me neither."

"Wait, but you told me it was a mutual breakup," Shepard pointed out.

"Um, I can't even say we actually dated," Kaidan sighed, "I mean, I tried to, but it just didn't work out. We talked and decided to stay friends. We even exchanged a few letters afterwards and everything seemed to be just fine."

"Well, that kind of glance she gave you when she saw you, didn't seem all that friendly to me."

"Yeah, I know, I was there," Kaidan agreed, "have no idea what happened that made her suddenly so pissed at me," he paused, looking up at Shepard nearly in panic, "oh god, what if she agreed that breaking up was a good idea only not to make me feel guilty? It must be so awkward for her right now," he added, covering his face with the palm of his hand.

"Well, you can't just hide in our quarters forever," Shepard shook his head.

"I'm not going too," Kaidan explained, "in fact, I'm planning on talking to her, it just doesn't feel like the right moment, with everything that’s happened to Tali."

"Yeah, I know," Shepard agreed, averting his eyes, "I hope the doctors on Rannoch can help her."

"Me too," Kaidan whispered, "me too."

 

***

After the war, there weren't many quarians left to populate an entire planet, but their infrastructure has become one of the most developed in comparison with any other planet in the galaxy. The quarian government still had plans to reconstruct the cities of their ancestors, but for now the flotilla was providing their people with everything they needed. That is why quarians went with the most reasonable course of action, descending every ship which could land safely in open fields of Rannoch and building their first new city Lah’Qwib out of those ships, while the rest of the flotilla continued to orbit the planet.

The name of the city itself, as Tali explained, literally meant 'Qwib which landed'. At the beginning quarian used the name to describe the fathership alone, then they started to use it referring to the entire settlement. The conclave tried to come up with a better name, but by the time, the name had stuck and it was decided to keep the it as official.

The city itself was pretty large in scale. In the very middle stood the proud fathership _Qwib-Qwib_ visibly bigger then the ships surrounding it, looking like a round white palace with the top part of it's spherical construction taken down, so the sunlight could reach the plant life growing inside. Over the year some of it's corpus was remodeled to serve as an actual ground construction: many large tubes, big enough to provide an easy transportation for flying vehicles like skycars, were attached to it, connecting the _Qwib-Qwib_ with the other grounded ships. Other buildings started to appear around them, making it difficult to imagine that this city was a part of the flotilla merely a year ago.

Three out of five representatives from the admiralty board lived in Lah'Qwib, but upon notification of the _Normandy_ ’s arrival, all of the members of the conclave were currently present in the city.

There were several representative meeting the commander and his team, including two medics who were informed about Tali's condition, waiting to accompany her to the medical facility.

Garrus followed Tali, protectively holding her waist, either because he expected her to fall unconscious again, or he simply needed a reassurance that she was still here, with him. The two of them were followed by Doctor Sonars as she still considered Tali her charge, until decided otherwise. Plus the doctor could explain the situation and even provide assistance if necessary.

Shepard wanted to go with them to be sure Tali was going to be all right, but there still were pressuring matters he needed attention first. He wished the party good luck and watched them board an ambulance, leaving the docking area of the _Qwib-Qwib_ , disappearing into one of the numerous tunnels.

"I think, we need to move out too," Liara proposed with a sigh.

"Yeah, we do," Shepard agreed, starting to walk towards the other two quarians meeting them.

 

***

The conference hall was smaller than the one Shepard had been in over two years ago, when he stood by Tali's side during the court, helping to prove her innocence. It still reminded him of that other hall, because it was situated in a similar fashion; green with different plantlife. The commander unintentionally noted that all of the admirals were still wearing the full suits, with their faces hidden behind the glass masks. He pondered if it was a nod to tradition or they were simply cautious of meeting the members of other species.

"It is an honor to have you here," Zaal'Koris greeted him, pointing at a bench before the tribune.

Shepard stepped to the bench, taking a seat, followed by Kaidan, Liara and James, who accompanied him to the city. He moved his eyes around the hall one more time, not able to shake off the feeling that something was terribly wrong. Shepard knew that the quarian conclave was designed to deal with matters like this, he knew that they usually had every member present for making important decisions. Right now the hall was empty -- there wasn't anyone present, but the four admirals and Shepard's party, which meant that the decision had already been made, or there was something more to the entire situation.

"It is a pleasure to finally be able visit your city, Admirals," Shepard nodded, trying not to show his concern.

"Unfortunately, we received a notification of your visit not so long ago, so we didn't have much time to prepare," Shala'Raan shook her head, "we apologize for any inconveniences you may encounter."

"Your concern is appreciated," Shepard smiled, "but you don't have to go out of your way in attempt to indulge me, you don't have to treat me in any special way."

"It is difficult not to treat someone in a special way, after they saved the Galaxy," Admiral Raan pointed out, "anyway, we heard about Tali'Zorah's condition and our thoughts are with her, but we still don't know why you requested a meeting with the admiralty board," she inquired.

Shepard blinked moving his eyes from one admiral to another. He was certain that the admirals knew reasons of his visit, but it looked like it wasn't the case. They also could be simply pretending, but it was also difficult to tell because of the masks they were wearing.

"I was informed about the geth you discovered in one of your cities," Shepard explained, "I came to assist with the situation."

All four admirals exchanged looks, like they wasn't sure how to react. They were silent for some time, but then Raal spoke again, "I think there was a little misunderstanding," she said, "I assume you became aware of the accident that happened several days ago, when one of our scout teams encountered an abandoned hub, filled with defective geth technology."

"Geth technology?" Shepard surprised, "I was told that you found actual intact geth," he protested.

"No," Raan shook her head, "geth were destroyed a year ago. The hub only contained some non functional geth body-parts and a few automated turrets. The scout team didn't notice them and was too slow to react. It was a misfortune to lose them, but we have already dealt with this problem.

Shepard moved his eyes from Admiral Raan to Zaal'Koris, searching for any hints of anxiety in him, but the only admiral who would stand for geth was immovable, "I can only confirm this information," he nodded noticing the commander's eyes on him.

"So, you mean to say that Tali lied to us?" Kaidan inquired from behind Shepard's back.

"No, it is not what we are saying," Shala'Raan replied, "Tali is a smart girl, but she is too sensitive and sometimes overreacts hearing simple rumors. She was simply misinformed about the situation, like many other quarians when she heard one of the returning scouts mentioning active geth hub. The hub was in fact active and made by geth, but it was not what it seemed."

"I've known Tali for quite some time," Shepard protested, crossing his hands on his chest, "and I would never describe her as too sensitive or prone to overreact," he said.

"And how many times have you dealt with pregnant women before, Commander?" Raan sighed.

Shepard blinked. He really didn't even think about the possibilities of Tali overreacting because of her condition. He still didn't want to admit that Raan had a point, didn't want to dismiss Tali's point of view, because he trusted her, but he understood that at the moment it was absolutely pointless to argue until he could gather more information.

"Meanwhile," Raan continued, "I'm sure that instead of sitting here and looking at each-other, we all would prefer to go and see how Tali'Zorah is doing."

Shepard bit his lower lip, looking at the ground. "Agreed," he said.

 

***

The sun slowly started to descent and the temperature drop. Jona approached the unconscious stranger again, checking if the cooling unit he composed from the parts of his arc pistol and attached to the stranger's enviro-suit worked properly -- it did.

It was unexpected how quickly Jona decided to destroy the only weapon he had to save a man he didn't even know. He sighed looking at the white frame of the pistol laying on the ground, now absolutely useless. It was an instinctual decision, really, Jona didn't even stop to think about it before he found himself disassembling the gun, but from another side, maybe this was making him better than the things he hated so much, things he planned to kill with this gun.

Jona had many question for the stranger, but the man spent hours asleep. Several times he was waking up and those times were spent in attempts to make him drink more water, after which the man was falling asleep again. A few times Jona thought about calling someone, but in this case he would have to explain what he was doing here with a stolen gun, while approaching the old city was prohibited. Of course, he would even risk jail if he was sure he wouldn't be able to help the stranger on his own, but the vital signs of the other quarian were strong. His suit seemed to be scorched a little and some fabric on it torn, but there weren't any breaches, which could threaten his health further.

It was about time to wake the stranger and make him drink again. Jona descended to his knee, shaking the stranger by the shoulder. The other man opened his eyes, looking around lost. Jona expected him to groan again and try to push him away, like he had done every other time, but instead the stranger started to get up into a sitting position.

"Do you feel better now?" Jona inquired.

The stranger was silent, looking around as if he had no idea where he was, then he brought his hand to his face, staring on them like he'd seen them for the first time, examining them from both sides. He exhaled, bringing his hands to the helmet, touching it, then suddenly started to take it off, like he was desperate.

"Whoa! What are you doing?" Jona yelled, "you’ll damage your suit!"

The word 'damage' although couldn't exactly describe the way the other quarian ripped the helmet off his head, leaving Jona with his mouth agape in awe of the other man's strength and... The young quarian gulped, as he got a look at the stranger without the faceplate obscuring his handsome features. The stranger looked a little bit over twenty, with short black hair falling messily over his faintly glowing eyes, with his lips full, crossed by a thin line of facial markings which started from the base of his nose and went somewhere under his suit.

"You'll get sick," Jona finally said and swore in his mind of how stupid he sounded.

The other quarian remained silent, touching his face, exploring it with his fingers, like he didn't know he had one.

"Umm, I'm Jona, by the way," the young quarian said, after what seemed to be minutes of awkward silense, "Jona'Hazt vas Ghrigult."

The other quarian looked at Jona, tilting his head. He reached for the younger quarian with his hand, touching the mask of his helmet. Jona felt his breath hitch yet again, starting to wish suddenly there wasn't anything between the stranger's fingers and his face.

There was a commotion behind his back, like a gust of wind. Then a thud, like something dropped to the ground from above. Jona wanted to turn his head and look, but he was pulled to the ground by the stranger only a second before a bullet passed above his head. The stranger pushed him further out of the way, before, still in a half-seated position, he moved forward, kicking a humanoid figure from his feet and burning through his armor with an omni-blade.

Jona heard another shot from above and looked up, spotting a white shuttle hovering in the air. The bullet sent from the shuttle reached the stranger's body, but was stopped by an invisible shield protecting him. The kinetic shield shattered from the impact like it was made of glass, but it kept the stranger unharmed.

Second humanoid -- now Jona could clearly see that they were also quarian, even if the shuttle was human in origin -- had already started to jump from the shuttle, but was shot by the stranger before he even reached the ground from a pistol in the other quarian's hand. Jona didn't even know where this pistol came from, because he didn't see it examining the stranger.

The second quarian looked up, hearing another shot from above. This time the quarian dodged the bullet, activating the omni-tool again and pointing it at the sniper. The riffle in the sniper's hand exploded, tearing the hands off his body, making him cry out and pain and fall backwards into the shuttle.

The stranger pointed a gun up and firered. Jona knew that it was impossible to damage a human Kodiak with a bullet, but the shot hit a spot right between two armor plates on the back side of the shuttle. Something exploded inside the vehicle and the white Kodiak trembled in the air. Then it rapidly started to fall in the direction of the two quarians.

Jona's heart stopped. He tried to move, but his body wasn't listening him as he watched the shuttle closing in. A pair of hands grabbed him, pulling him away from the spot into the bushes. He tumbled, falling to the ground on his stomach. The next moment he heard a sound of the shuttle crushing, which nearly deafened him.

After a while, Jona stood up from the hiding spot. He saw the stranger standing above a still alive enemy who was trying to crawl out the burning shuttle. The stranger stepped on the man's back, immobilizing him and pointing his gun to his head, shooting the man, without a single emotion crossing his face.Then he looked around, searching for other survivors, but not able to find anyone, dropped his gun to the ground.

Jona looked around the crash-site noting the markings on the armor of the men and the shuttle. It was an emblem known by everyone in the galaxy, hated by everyone in the galaxy -- a black and yellow hexagram on the white background. Yet, it didn't make any sense why it was worn by the members of his own race. Jona sighed, trying to calm down his fast beating heart, while he started to walk towards the strange quarian, who brought his hands to his face again, looking down his body, as if he had no idea he was capable of fighting so well.

Then the stranger turned to Jona, looking at him, actually noticing him for the first time. He offered Jona his hand -- a human gesture, the young quarian recognised. Carefully Jona reached for the offered hand, shaking it the way he saw humans do.

"Creator Hazt,” the stranger said in a deep monotone voice, “I am Legion."


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Human hospitals had always had this distinct smell associated with them, a smell anyone walking into a medical facility was expecting to feel. Quarian hospital didn't have it. It was sterile as any quarian premises, with clean white rooms and equipment which looked as good as new, even if some of it was built from salvaged parts, found on forgotten dump sites.

Quarian medics weren't wearing any distinguishable uniforms either. The traditional fabric wrappings on their suits were of lighter colors -- white or light gray -- but the style of each suite was different. If not for the most common in the galaxy symbol for medical establishments, Shepard would have never been able to tell, that they arrived at a hospital.

Before proceeding further into the facility, Shepard and his team were given a set of respirators half of the quarians wore. They also had to pass not one, but three decontamination chambers.

Tali was situated in one of the wards, inside of a spherical containment chamber, almost naked, with only a strap of white material covering her chest and some sort of shorts on her hips. She was sitting on a table surrounded by a transparent glass, with her legs pulled up to her chest. Next to the table stood Garrus, wearing something which reminded him of a biohazard suite from the late twentieth century, which in any other circumstances would have been comical to see. When Shepard entered the room, Tali turned her head, looking at him, her eyes filled with a mix of fear and sorrow.

"How is she?" Shepard asked walking to Doctor Sonars.

"Not good," Sonars shook her head, " the local doctors don't know what to do either."

One of the quarian medics approached the commander, nodding in a greeting, "we've already explained the situation to the turian father," he said, "unfortunately, there is no hope."

"Are you certain?" Shepard inquired, "maybe I can do something? Obtain rare medicaments from the far edge of the system, or a piece of equipment you're lacking?"

The quarian sighed and shook his head, "I'm sorry," he said, "there is nothing that can be done. The only action available to us right now is embryotomy. We have to remove the foetus, otherwise Tali'Zorah's own life can be in danger."

Shepard gulped moving his eyes to Tali. She turned her head away, looking at the white wall on the side of the room, not even moving.

"May I talk to her?" the commander asked.

"Of course, she will appreciate it," the quarian doctor nodded.

Shepard moved to the other side of the room towards the containment chamber. He walked to the glass side, placing his palm on the cool glass surface. "Tali," he whispered.

The quarian looked at him again. Standing closer to her, Shepard could see tears gathered on the corner of her eyes, but she wasn't crying.

"Shepard," Tali sighed, placing her own hand on the glass, on the same spot the commander's own hand was.

Shepard wanted to ask if she was ok, but he could see that she wasn't. He wanted to ask how she was holding up, but he knew the answer to this question as well. "I'm sorry, Tali," he finally said, "I'm so sorry."

***

Admiral Raan walked towards a small balcony looking over the square below. There were many quarians in the park, enjoying a quiet end of the day. Raan noticed that most of them were either young couples, or families with small kids. It was a nice thing to see, giving hope to all quarians as a race, who had been almost instinct during the war. It was a picture of peace and tranquility, yet, the admiral knew how fragile this situation was, how easy it was to destroy millennia of culture, wiping their entire city.

"We are making a mistake," Zaal'Koris whispered, walking to stand next to her.

"I know that Han'Gerrel methods weren't always right, but for this one time I have to side with him and Xen," she replied shaking her head.

"And what about Shepard?" Koris shook his head, "do you honestly think that after everything he has done for us, we can simply lie to him?" he asked.

"What do you want me to do?" Raan sighed.

"I'm sure we can arrange something," Koris suggested, "deliver him a message, so no-one else will find out about it."

For a moment Shala'Raan reminded silent, looking down the park, watching the people. "Look at them," she sighed finally, nodding at the picture before their eyes, "there are over ten thousand people leaving here. It leaves less than six thousand people still orbiting the planet. If anything happens to the city, can you imagine that there will be only six thousand of us left in the entire galaxy?" she asked with desperation in her voice. "Three days, we only need three days to sort this out."

"And what if Shepard find out on his own?" Zaal'Koris inquired, "I doubt that the council will see it as a friendly gesture."

"The council needs us," Admiral Raan reminded, "and about Shepard," she added, "as much as it pains me to lie to someone who helped us so much, we have to see to it, that he won't find out."

***

"Whycan't I shake off a feeling, that we are more like prisoners here, than guests?" Vega sighed walking through the doorway into a room that quarians offered for Shepard to stay.

Every member of the crew who wished to go ashore during their stay at Lah'Qwib, was accommodated with a room at one of the wings of the civilian fleet fathership. Those rooms were small, but clean and comfortable. Each of them had one or two single beds, as even married quarians weren't accustomed to share sleeping places. For Shepard personally it was slightly uncomfortable, but for the most of his crewmembers, the rooms were still more luxurious than the bunks they had on the _Normandy_.

They were allowed to go anywhere in the city and even directed to some local sites, like markets and restaurants which had a selection of non-dextro food. They were treated well, but the amount of guards around them was suspiciously high. Every step they made was watched.

"I know," Shepard agreed, leaning on one of the walls and looking through a window. The window was leading to a small yard with some bushes planted around it and a single bench on the farther side, "but we can't do anything, without knowing more about the situation," he added with a sigh.

"Well, we have two Specters here," Vega pointed out, "and Rannoch is now officially a part of Council space."

"I am aware," Shepard replied, "but we are trying to maneuver on thin ice here. The quarians are too valuable for the council. They don't require material help, but help the Citadel and Palaven with emergency dextro food supplies instead, while also planning on establishing long-term trade with Council Space. If we start shooting blind, there are possibilities to piss them off enough to separate from the council races."

"And here we thought a big threat would unite the galaxy forever," Kaidan echoed from another side of the room. He was sitting on one of the beds, listening to the conversation.

"It did," Shepard replied, "most of the galaxy lays in ruins, but people are willing to work with each-other, help each-other. That is why we should be careful and not disturb this situation."

Vega groaned, "of course, we should go out of the way for someone who lies to us," he said.

"We don't have to prove they are lying," Kaidan reminded.

"Yeah, and you want to tell me that Sparkles, who was tearing her ass to save her people and the galaxy, is really on some sort of hormonal trip, that she can't distinguish right from wrong? Sorry, I just don't buy it."

"That was not what I meant," Kaidan protested.

"Alright, that's enough," Shepard interrupted, moving his eyes from Kaidan to Vega. "We can't just order the conclave around, but we aren't going to simply sit and wait either. Tali's surgery is scheduled at noon tomorrow and we still have the entire evening and half of the day tomorrow. During this time, I will try to request a meeting with Zaal'Koris, because he is the only one who would tell if other admirals were hiding something. Meanwhile, I need you to talk to other members of the crew, I need you all to go out, talk to people in stores, in cafes; see if you hear some rumors, opinions, or anything that can help us."

Vega nodded, saluting the commander, "Aye," he said, turning on his heel and leaving the room.

Shepard turned his eyes to Kaidan who was still sitting on the bed, "I meant you too, Kaidan," he said seriously.

The major didn't even flinch as he stood from the bed, "yes, sir," he said. There wasn't even a note of sarcasm or playfulness in his tone, even when they were alone in the room. Kaidan gave Shepard one final glance, before following Vega outside.

Shepard sighed, rubbing his temples. He almost turned away from the window to go to the desk to start composing a meeting request with Admiral Koris, when he noticed three quarians outside the yard. It was difficult to see the street behind this yard and it was difficult to understand what was going on, but it looked like two of the quarians were trying to attack the third one.

Shepard rushed out the room and out the building, exiting to the street. From here he could see the situation better: the two hostile quarians were the guards assigned to the perimeter, while the third one looked smaller. He was trying to explain something to the guards, but they didn't seem to care what he was trying to say. Instead one of the guards pulled a pistol, pointing it at the smaller quarian.

"Hey, what is going on here?" Shepard yelled, walking toward them.

The guards turned their attention to Shepard. The smaller quarian tried to use this situation to escape, but the second guard tripped him, making him fall to the ground, before placing his foot on the smaller quarian's back, immobilizing him.

"Commander Shepard," both of the guards saluted, "we apologize you had to witness this," said the guard who only a moment ago was pointing a gun at the defenseless boy. "We caught him trying to sneak into the building. When we politely asked him to leave, he refused."

"And that is why you decided to threaten him with a gun?" Shepard snapped angrily.

"Please, Commander," the second guard sighed, "that is Jona, Captain Nac'Teet vas Ghrigult's nephew, and the biggest bosh'tet the flotilla had ever known. A thief, a liar and just generally someone with no respect for quarian community."

"He puts shame on his uncle's good name!" supported the first guard.

"And you don't put a shame on yourself by threatening him like that?" Shepard growled stepping closer to the guards, "you pointed a gun on someone who is unarmed!" he said to the first guard, poking his finger into his chest, "and you still have your foot on him!" he turned to the second one, "is this what you call a law enforcement? Is this respecting quarian community?"

The first guard, who stood closer to Shepard made a small step back. Both of them exchanged looks, not sure how to proceed. “Yeah, alright,” the first guard finally sighed, nodding at his friend to let Jona go. The guard holding Jona released the smaller quarian, allowing him to crawl from under his foot and stand up from the ground. “I’m sorry, Commander,” he said.

The two of them looked at each-other again, before turning around and starting to walk away.

“Umm, thanks,” Jona whispered, dusting off his suite, “if it wasn’t for you, they would lock me up for a week again.”

Shepard nodded to the quarian, "would it be with a reason?" he asked.

Jona raised his head looking at the commander, "no, not this time, I swear," he said.

"Uh-huh," Shepard sized Jona up, raising his eyebrow, "so why did you try to sneak up into the building then?"

The quarian looked down, “I need to talk to you in private, it is urgent,” he said after a small pause, walking past Shepard and into the building. Shepard hummed in surprise and followed Jona. “Which room is yours?” the quarian asked when they were inside.

Shepard looked over the quarian from tip to toe. There weren’t any weapons visible on him and he didn’t look like someone who could be able to harm the commander. Still, Shepard was suspicious. “So, you want to talk to me about something, but the guards just called you a thief and a liar,” he pointed out, crossing his hands over his chest, “help me out here, explain why I should trust you?” he asked.

“A friend of yours asked me to deliver a message, he tried to reach you himself, but he said he wouldn’t be able to enter the city. He asked you to meet him at this location,” he said activating his omni-tool to pass the coordinates.

“And how will I know it’s not a trap of some sort?” the commander inquired.

“He said his name was Legion,” Jona added.

Shepard felt a weave of angry shiver running through his body. He clenched his teeth, grabbing the quarian by the shoulder and dragging him inside the room. “Listen, boy,” he said when the door behind their back clicked closed. He guided Jona towards the closest chair pushing him to sit and leaning over him, keeping his hand on the quarian shoulder, “It just happened that I've met your father, I know what happened and understand that it must have hurt losing both parents, but it doesn’t excuse this,” he exhaled with a groan, while still trying to keep his voice calm and not threatening. “I saw Legion die with my own two eyes. You have no excuse to insult the memory of him with lies.”

Jona was sitting on the chair, trying to flatten himself against it, but even through the glass mask of his enviro-suit, Shepard could see that he’d never moved his eyes away from Shepard’s, looking at the commander without fear. “I’m not a lier!” Jona protested after he took a deep breath, “the guards only called me a liar because I was trying to convince people, that the threat of geth was real, that the conclave is deceiving us!”

“What do you know about it?” Shepard asked, still angry at the quarian.

“I don’t know much,” Jona shook his head, “I only know that you need to go and meet Legion, that it is important. Here,” he said reaching for his side pocket and extracting something out of it.

Shepard couldn’t see what it was exactly, before Jona offered the object to the commander, placing it in Shepard’s hand. The object was made of light metal, of very familiar metal painted black, with a small part of white letter engraved into it. One side of the metal piece was smooth, like someone cut it, the other part was chunked, like with a shot of high calibre gun. Shepard’s eyes widened as he recognized what this item was.

“He asked to tell you ‘the hole is no more’, said you will understand.” Jana offered with his voice unsure.

Shepard finally stepped away from the chair, looking at the piece of his old N7 armor and then at the quarian, not sure what to say. He nodded turning away from Jona and activating his omni-tool, calling Vega and Kaidan at the same time. “Abandon the current task,” he ordered, “return to the docks, we're leaving the city.”

***

“They aren’t going to let us out,” Joker groaned, glancing over the control panel of the _Normandy_ , “I mean, wow, what a surprise! You get them their planet back and they dry dock you. Gee, how nice of them!”

They were back on the Normandy. Shepard stood behind the pilot seat, with one of his hands of the headrest of Joker’s chair. The ship wasn’t physically restrained to leave the bay, but the blue kinetic barrier around the exits was making it impossible to leave. “EDI, did you ask them to drop the shields on Specter authority?” Shepard asked turning to the AI.

“I did,” EDI said with a nod, “there was no response of any kind from quarians.”

“They can’t just keep us locked up forever,” Vega shook his head as he walked to the cockpit.

“I can just make another exit,” Joker proposed, “don’t think that quarians would be happy with it, but what the hell!”

“Can it, Joker,” Shepard warned.

Jona explained that it was important to meet Legion tonight, but there was no way to exit the city, without destroying half of the docks. Shepard would never go to this extreme and the admirals had probably known it.

"I need to find Zaal'Koris," Shepard said groaning and turning around. He didn't even care if he had to break into the admiral's house to meet with him at this point.

"Huh," Joker surprised, "I don't know about Zaal'Koris, but I think this Gerrel guy needs to talk to you," he said pointing at the left side of the observation screen.

Shepard looked through the port, noticing a small delegation approaching the Normandy. Admiral Han'Gerrel was walking towards the ship, surrounded by several guards, none of which were carrying visible weapons. Of course, the fact that Shepard couldn't see any weapons didn't mean that they didn't have any.

"They are asking for a permission to come aboard," Joker informed.

"Permission granted," Shepard replied, then turned to Vega, "prepare the briefing room, post several guards of our own," he ordered.

***

The atmosphere on the ship had became tense, when the quarian admiral of the heavy fleet boarded. Shepard refused to believe that it could lead to an armed confrontation, but he couldn't stop sizing the guards that boarded with the admiral.

Shepard noticed Han'Gerrel faltered for a second when he saw five alliance officers around the briefing room and almost started to regret his order, but on another hand he needed to show that he was serious. The admiral glanced at the commander and nodded proceeding into the briefing room.

"What is going on, Admiral?" Shepard inquired, when they stood around the table, "why can't we leave the city?"

"My apologies, Commander," Garrel sighed, "the city is locked down under quarantine."

"Quarantine?" Shepard surprised, "what happened?"

Han'Gerrel turned to the observation port looking through it on the docks, locking his hands behind his back, "a few hours ago, one of our expedition teams returned from the North. It looks like they were exposed to a some sort of virus," he explained.

"All right," the commander nodded, "I still can't see any reason for holding us in lockdown."

"It is a standard procedure, while encountering a new form of virus or bacteria, Commander," the admiral explained, "I apologize, but no-one can leave the city until we make sure it is safe."

"I am a Specter, Admiral," Shepard reminded, "I'm allowed to ignore your 'standard procedures' if I find it necessary."

This time Han'Gerrel turned to the commander, stepping forward. "All right, Commander," he said, "ignore our 'standard procedures' if you wish, but do you really want to be responsible for bringing the virus to the Citadel, or even worse, back to Earth, while we know nothing about it?" the admiral stepped even closer, invading Shepard's personal space, while keeping eye contact. "Do you want to be responsible for even more lives if it turns to be deadly?"

Shepard clenched his fists. He wanted to say something, anything, but he was at a complete loss of words.

"I didn't think so," Han'Gerrel nodded stepping back. "Listen, Commander, I understand your motivations and wish to help, but right now it is too risky to do anything. Give us three days to determine what is going on and then you're free to go."

Shepard nodded. He didn't know if the admiral was telling the truth and it was impossible to tell with the mask. Shepard started to suspect, that the conclave members were still wearing the suits so no-one could read their facial expressions. Still, the commander decided to drop his attempts of open confrontation with the admiral. There were other ways to find if he was telling the truth. "If it really is a virus, you can use help," he offered, "EDI's analytically abilities can be of a help."

"It is true," EDI confirmed through the comm link.

Han'Gerrel was quiet for a moment, looking at the comm link speaker in the room. "Very well," he replied finally, "I will accept the help, as a sign of our cooperation."

With those words Han'Gerrel turned, exiting the briefing room. When he was out of the reach of earsight, the comm link sounded again. "Did I get it right?" Joker inquired, with a note of annoyance in his voice "you want to send EDI with them? So if the quarians will decide to go to the dark side, they would have a hostage?"

"I need someone on inside, Joker," Shepard sighed, "and EDI is our best bet."

"But Commander..." Joker tried to protest.

"She will be fine," Shepard reassured.

"Aye, boss," Joker replied sounding defeated, before disconnecting the link.

Shepard sighed and turned to Vega and Kaidan who were present in the room during the briefing. "And what the two of you think?" Shepard inquired.

"That it is a load of bullcrap?" Vega shrugged his shoulders.

Kaidan looked at the other marine raising his eyebrow, "I know that my and Major Vega's way of formulating thoughts in a sentence are very different, but basically he voiced my thoughts exactly," he supported. "I mean, a virus? and it so conveniently coincidences in time with our stay. More than suspicious."

"And the fact that they have a timeline of three days for dealing with the problem. It's like they know exactly how much time it will take," Vega added.

"Agreed," Shepard nodded, "but it is still in our best interest to play nice. It means that we have to find a way to sneak out the city. Any suggestions?" he asked.

"I might have one," a voice sounded from behind a pile of cargo crates outside the room.

All five marines standing on guard around the area turned to the direction of the voice, pointing their rifles at the crates.

"At ease," Shepard commanded recognizing the voice. He walked towards the crates looking behind them. There, crouched in a what looked to be a very uncomfortable position, was sitting Jona, "how did you get inside?" Shepard sighed, more annoyed than angry.

"Um, through the disposal shaft?" Jona replied looking up. "I thought you would discuss the geth, and I really needed to know more about it." He explained, carefully standing up.

Shepard shook his head, "you know, what kind of trouble you could get in?" he asked, "or even more, what kind of trouble you could bring to your own people, sneaking onto a ship of a different faction?"

Jona casted his head down, cringing before the commander "I'm sorry..." he whispered.

The commander brought his palm up to his face, massaging his temples in frustration, "all right," he said, "what kind of suggestion do you have?"

Jona looked up, straightening his back, "the way out the city," he said proudly, "I know one exit you can use without being detected."

"Is there any downside to it?" Shepard inquired noticing Jona turning his head away again and looking uncomfortable.

"It... doesn't smell good," Jona replied.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Shepard had never felt more fooled in his life, than the moment he saw the shuttle hidden by thick three branches. He wasn't able to bring any of his gear but a pistol, because he couldn't sneak it past the quarian patrols, neither he could bring many members of his squad for the same exact reason. It took Shepard three hours of crawling through city sewers and climbing through narrow mountain passages to reach the destination only to find himself standing in front of a Cerberus Kodiak, while having no armor and only Vega and Kaidan backing him up.

"Shit," Shepard heard Kaidan groaning, before he saw the light of a biotic barrier coming from behind his back. Still, even with a biotic on the team, there was no way the three of them could withstand an ambush. Not while the commander wasn't able to even run without straining something in his body. They were totally and utterly done.

"Wait," Jona said walking to Shepard and placing his hand on the pistol in Shepard's hand, lowering it, "Legion and I borrowed this shuttle from the guys who tried to kill us," he explained.

Shepard eyed the quarian with surprise, "Cerberus? You fought Cerberus?" he asked.

"Well, not me personally," Jona replied with a nod, as he walked towards the shuttle, knocking on the door. A few seconds later it opened and another figure appeared before the commander. Even if it was dark, Shepard could see that the person meeting them wasn't a geth, but another quarian. This quarian nodded to Jona, then turned his head towards Shepard.

"Shepard-Commander," the quarian said, starting to approach the three of them.

Shepard blinked, making a step back. "Who are you?" he asked with distrust.

"I understand, that this... body must be confusing to see," the quarian said nodding and looking down at himself, "it was... confusing for me as well."

Shepard looked over the quarian. It definitely wasn't a geth the commander remembered, he didn't even have the same voice. At the same time his manner of speech, his intonations were unmistakable. "Legion?" Shepard asked not hiding his surprise.

"That can't be true," Kaidan sighed behind the commander's back, "how can Legion be a quarian?"

"This matter might require some explanation, but we must hurry, to retrieve my people from Cerberus," Legion said, "I can provide you with any explanations on our way to the hub," he added turning around and moving towards the shuttle. When none of the people present followed him, Legion turned his head back, "it will be more comfortable, than flying in a cargo section of a geth fighter," he said.

When Shepard walked closer to the shuttle, he noticed it was damaged. The entire rear section was scorched; black splotches of soot were covering the white surface from the bottom of the rear engines to the roof of the shuttle. It's entire front was crumpled and one of the front thruster flaps looked like it was almost torn off, but then hasty repaired.

The inside of the shuttle didn't look better. It looked like whatever happened to the rear engines caused the fire to spread all over the back side of the Kodiak, smoking it's roof black from inside as well as from outside. Besides the soot all over the ceiling, the walls of the shuttle were covered in dried blood.

"This bird has surely seen better days," Vega commented stepping into the shuttle.

"An usage of force was required to take it down," Legion explained as a matter of fact. He walked to the pilot seat, powering the engines, then turned his head, "Creator Hazt," he said addressing the young quarian who stepped inside the shuttle after the three marines, "I will need you to return to the city."

"Not until someone explains to me what is going on," Jona protested angrily, "you keep calling me 'creator', your human friends are surprised to see a quarian, you have mentioned this body not being yours, you said that Cerberus is going to take controll over your people. Did you mean geth? Who are you?" Jona demanded. "I deserve at least this explanation after I helped you," he added after a moment of silence.

"I am," Legion replied calmly, "I used to be a geth."

Jona looked over Legion, like he couldn't believe him. Shepard couldn't blame him for it, because he didn't know if it was even possible, he had no idea what happened to his friend to turn him into a living, breathing being.

Legion fixed his eyes on the commander, "when we encountered a reaper on Rannoch, I needed to upload the reaper code into all of the geth platforms," he started to explain, "I couldn't do it remotely and I had to transfer myself into the reaper. I knew that I didn't have time to return to my platform before the reaper would shut down entirely and all of my data would be lost together with its core programming. I was prepared for it. But nearly at the end of the code transmission, I felt someone uploading me from the reaper. Seconds before the emergency protocol inside the reaper was activated to erase its programming, I found myself on a Cerberus server."

"I suppose, I should stop being surprised about Cerberus trying to involve themselves in everything," Shepard said, "but how did they manage to do it? And why?"

"I am not aware how," Legion shook his head, "all I know is that after months spent in darkness, I became a part of the project Overload."

"Project Overload?" Kaidan surprised, "I remember meeting this doctor on the Cerberus base we helped to evacuate during the war. He mentioned this name."

"Doctor Archer, yes," Shepard nodded, "but the project was created to find a way to control geth," he pointed out.

"It was one of its purposes, yes," Legion said with a nod, "the other purpose was to find a way to transform organic brain impulses into digital form."

"They were trying to find ways to turn people into AI's?" Kaidan inquired, his intonation was full of disgust.

"Yes, and not only," Legion added, looking down his new body. "The transition proved to be rather... painful," he said, "many organic bodies were destroyed before they were able to succeed in finding one suitable for me."

"Suitable for you?" Shepard raised his eyebrow.

"Yes," Legion nodded, "Code structures of every AI program are different, similar to organic DNA. A sufficient match in those structures is required for the body to accept the program. Against my will, I have been transferred into different bodies, before this one could be artificially created."

"They cloned this body for you?" Kaidan groaned. "Sick bastards."

"Ok, I get it why Cerberus was trying to find ways of making AIs out of living beings, but why would they need to transfer AIs into living bodies?" Shepard asked. "It doesn't make sense, considering the robotic platforms would make better troops."

"I do not know," Legion replied, "I was highly sedated and was only able to escape after they brought me here to help with re-activating the geth. They sent troops to recover me. That is why we need to hurry, before Cerberus decides I'm hiding in the city and releases the virus."

"Virus?" Shepard asked surprised, "you mean the quarantine in Lah'Qwib is justified?"

"Yes," Legion nodded, "the entire city is held hostage to Cerberus. There are several infiltrators among their people. If the Conclave refuses to cooperate, those infiltrators would release the virus. Every person in the city will be affected, as the virus is both biological and technological in nature. It will first target the enviro-suits, damaging them, making quarians exposed to the biological part of it. I managed to steal the access codes which can protect the enviro-suites. It can give quarians a chance to formulate a vaccine." Legion turned to Jona, walking towards him, "I can't send them from here, because every communication with the city is monitored. I would have asked you to deliver the codes the first time, but bringing the commander here before Cerberus sends reinforcements was more important," he explained.

Jona, who was quiet the entire time, suddenly moved towards the commander. He grabbed into the holster on the commander's hip, nearly tearing it off, as he extracted the gun before Shepard could react.

"You're crazy," Jona groaned, "All of you! I don't know if everything you said is true or not, but if it is," the quarian took a deep breath, "if it is true, if you're truly a geth, and if you're the only one who can reactivate all other geth, there is another way to solve this problem," he said.

Shepard wanted to jump on the quarian, to pin him to the ground, but before he could even move, Legion interrupted him. "Shepard-Commander, don't!" he said slowly stepping to the other quarian. "You are right, Creator Hazt," he said, "my extermination will leave Cerberus with empty hands. They would not have ways to obtain the help of my people for their goals and will most likely leave Rannoch," he made another step.

"Then why, why can't we can't just deal with this problem now?" Jona asked. Shepard couldn't see his face, but he could hear a quiet sob between his breaths.

"Because if you do, my people will be lost forever," Legion replied, making yet another step.

"Your people killed thousands of quarians, they killed my parents, " Jona cried, his hands around the pistol were visibly shaking. "Your people don't deserve to live!"

"Creator Hazt, I'm sorry," Legion said to Jona and for the first time Shepard heard his voice to turn emotional, filled with sadness and condolence, "but would your parents want you to do it?" he asked stepping even closer to the barrel pointed at him, "they gave their lives, trying to ensure the end of the war between quarians and geth," another step and the barrel of the pistol touched Legion's chest, "would they want you to start this conflict again?"

"I..." Jona exhaled, "you're going to the hub to save the geth," he shook his head.

"We are going to the hub to save quarians too," Legion corrected.

For a moment Jona stood immovable, not responding. In the tense atmosphere, Shepard started to feel that Jona was really going to shoot. He looked at his own gun in the quarian hands, trying to think of a way to knock it from Jona without hurting anyone. Thankfully, Jona lowered his hands and dropped the pistol to the ground without anyone's interference. Legion raised his hand to rest on on Jona's shoulder, squeezing it gently, then did something which the commander would have never expected. He leaned in, embracing Jona, while the young quarian rested his head on Legion's shoulder, sobbing quietly into it.

Shepard turned his head, to give the quarian and the geth turned into quarian some privacy in the small closed space of the Kodiak shuttle. He tried to concentrate on the wall, but it was painted with blood stains, which only made the commander frown. He heard Vega coughing pointedly and glanced back.

Jona stood still for a second, before pushing himself away from Legion, like he was caught on fire. "I... umm," he mumbled, "the codes, yeah, I can do it," he added, activating an omni-tool on his wrist.

Following Jona's example Legion activated his omni-tool, transferring data between the two devices. When the process was complete, Jona nodded and hurried out of the shuttle, not even sparing anyone a second glance.

"Wow," Vega chuckled giving Legion a surprised look, "that was just... wow."

"I noticed several biological responses in Creator Hazt when he is around me." Legion said turning to the cockpit of the shuttle. "Depending of our proximity, his breath pattern was changing, together with the rate of his heartbeat. I also noticed the slight change of his behavior manifesting in broken pattern of sentence composition and the increased rate of flustering. It led me to a conclusion that Creator Hazt experiences a sexual attraction towards me. As far as I was aware, an embrace is a proper form of responding to such attraction among organics."

Shepard blinked. He wasn't sure if he was more surprised that Legion, of all the people he knew, showed a romantic interest in someone, or how cold and calculated Legion was talking about it.

"You sly dog," Vega said grinning wide, "just got a shiny new organic body and already decided to explore the perks."

Legion turned his head to Vega, tilting it. "I was not planning to explore any perks. I noticed his behavior and responded in a way which I was aware was appropriate."

"Um, you mean you don't return his... his... you don't feel the same about him?" Shepard asked raising an eyebrow.

Legion looked at Shepard in confusion, "I did not have time to contemplate it," he replied simply.

If the walls inside the shuttle didn't look so dirty, Shepard would lean his forehead against it, so the cold metal surface would cool his discomfort and amusement, which he was experiencing at the same time. Instead, he shook his head, "Legion," he smirked, "you have no idea how good it is to have you back."

Legion spared another glance at the commander, before he started to power the engines of the Kodiak. This time he didn't manage it either, because he was stopped by Kaidan, who walked towards the pilot seat, placing his hand on Legion's shoulder. "Just a moment," he said, "If I got it right, you want to take us to the geth hub, which is crawling with Cerberus troops, while first," he started to tick off points on his fingers, "there are only four of us and we don't know how many of them; second, we have neither enough firearms, nor armor; third, we have absolutely no plan, and finally," he turned to look at his husband and Shepard already knew what he was going to bring up, "the commander isn't allowed to go into battles, because of his medical condition."

"Kaidan, I feel fine, I swear," Shepard protested, because he really did. Even if the lack of pain was connected with the amount of medications he was taking every day.

"Sorry, Commander," Kaidan shook his head, "it is enough that we agreed to allow you to go and meet Legion, because you convinced us that you were sure it was him. What you're asking is too much."

"You don't need to worry," Legion interfered. "I have a plan, and none of us will have to fight if you will do everything according to it."

***

Jona was running as fast as he could, without even turning his head, untill he reached the mountain. His heart was beating so fast, that he thought his filter wouldn't be able to provide him with enough oxygen to support this rhythm. He stopped to catch his breath before entering the mountain path, leaning on a slope of a rock formation. It was easy to tell himself, that the heart was beating faster because of a long run, but it would be a lie. Not less than a half an hour ago he nearly shot the guy whom he saved and who saved him, because he used to be a geth. Then he just hugged Jona, without fear, without anger for what he'd nearly done.

A flash of memory rushed into his mind. His mother embracing him when he broke a toy as a child. Jona was so scared that his mother would be angry at him, but she just pressed Jona against her chest, laughing and saying that it was all right, that he didn't have to be sacred, because his mother would never hurt him.

Jona felt tears run down his cheeks. His mother was gone forever, and he even had enough time to mourn her, to accept that he would never see her again. Of course, he'd never managed to forget it, had never managed to fully move on, but with time the pain dulled. Until Legion came and reopened the old wound.

Legion's people were responsible for the death of his parents, he should've hated him, but he couldn't find it in himself. Instead, everything which was coming to his mind when he thought about Legion was his gentle handsome features, his deep voice and his warmth when he embraced Jona.

The quarian shook his head. Everything he felt was confusing, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. Enemy or not, Legion was right and he had to deliver the codes to the city.

Two and a half hours later, Jona was crawling through the sewers towards one of the passageways into the main ship of the Lah'Qwib. When he reached his destination, he carefully opened a hatch and stepped into one of a dark narrow streets of the city.

"Hold right there!" he heard from behind his back.

He turned around and saw six armed guards approaching him. He recognized one of the guards immediately -- it was the same guy he met before the apartment complex where the crew of the _Normandy_ stayed.

"Well, well, what do we have here," the guard chuckled, walking towards Jona, grabbing him by the leather stripes on his suite, "and no famous Commander Shepard to back you up this time. So, what did you do to him?" the guard groaned, "did you lure him into the sewers to kill him?"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Jona protested, "you need to be a total idiot to try to kill Shepard!"

"Then where is he?" the guard groaned.

"This is none of you business!" Jona snapped, groaning into the guard's face.

"Oh really?" the guard shook his head, "I was assigned to keep the commander out of trouble, and you stole him from under my nose with your lies. So, unless you want to end up in prison for the rest of your life, I suggest you to cooperate!"

Jona averted his head, clenching his teeth. "I will cooperate, I swear!" he said, "I just need to talk to one of the admirals first, it is important!"

"Oh, first you had important business to discuss with the commander, then the commander disappears and now you have an important business to discuss with the admirals. Stop lying to me!" the guard groaned again, taking Jona by the straps and lifting him from the ground.

"I need to talk to the admirals!" Jona insisted.

"So, you will resist the arrest, won't you?" the guard sighed, "all right then," he activated the omni-tool and Jona thought that the guard was going to call someone, but instead a blade appeared on the end of the glowing device.

Jona started to panic, he tried to kick the guard to get free, but the other quarian was at least twice stronger than him. Jona thought that the guard was going to kill him right there, but instead he did something even more terrible. The omni-blade reached the oxygen tube behind Jona's helmet, cutting through it with no effort. The grip on Jona's suit disappear and the young quarian fell onto the ground.

The flow of the oxygen into his helmet was cut off. There still was enough of it inside the helmet for three or four breaths, but after that, Jona started to inhale the reused air. The inside of his glass mask momentarily covered with vapors of his own breath so it became impossible to see, his head started to spin, as he tried to crawl blindly on the ground away from the guards. With every second, it was becoming more and more difficult to move. Jona was getting dizzy and his lungs started to hurt.

He reached for his helmet with his hands, pressing into the glass part of it, untill it clicked open, before removing the glass. The weave of clean air enveloped him, allowing him to breath again. The next moment he gasped feeling the smell of his own suit after his trip through the sewers. Jona coughed wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"Take him into the brig," the guard sighed behind him, "give him medical attention as soon as he tells us where Shepard is," he commanded.

Jona's eyes widened. No, they couldn't simply lock him up now. He knew that it was possible to spend at least a day exposed to bacteria and survive if given proper medical attention afterwards, but with the virus Cerberus was going to unleash on the city, he was as good as dead.

Jona stood up and tried to run, but something hit him on the back. Two pairs of hands grabbed him under the arms and started to drag him towards a car, parked not too far from the sewer exit.

 


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

The old quarian city laid in ruins for centuries. The majority of the tall skyscrapers were intact, but the damage done to them by nature was making it hazardous to even stand in their vicinity. Three roots and bushes overgrowing the city had nearly destroyed the concrete of their foundations and those constructions looked like they were close to collapsing at any given day.

The entrance to the geth hub was clear of the ruins and intact. Above it was a construction, which looked like a warehouse, the distinct look setting it apart from the quarian architecture. The architecture was most definitely geth, who preferred functional over aesthetic: the walls of the building were plain, made of metal, with at least a dozen of different pipes coming out of the building.

The dispatcher sat before his panel. It was almost midnight and his schedule ended in less than half an hour of Rannoch time, and he couldn’t wait until it was over. The entire day had been spent with nothing to do, but looking through the same magazine he brought with him to his post.

He sighed, reaching for the mug of coffee, but his hand had never touched it. A small green light flickered before his eyes, making the dispatcher straighten on his seat. He looked up at the screen with at least a dozen of surveillance vids, selecting the one showing the landing pad, before he touched it to enlarge and saw a battle damaged shuttle approaching the pad.

"This is the Gamma squad," the shuttle pilot reported through the radio channel, "mission is accomplished, requesting permission to land."

The dispatcher verified the numbers and reached for the button with a still flickering green light above it, but his hand was stopped midway by a smaller palm placed over it. The metallic bracelet on the hand made the dispatcher freeze in panic, turning his head towards a blond woman standing next to him. "Any concerns about the shuttle, ma'am?" he inquired carefully.

"Let me talk to them," she smiled warmly.

Her smile made the dispatcher gulp; a shiver of dread ran through his body. He backed away from the console trying to get as far as he could from her. "Yes, ma'am," he nodded.

"Gamma squad, what is the reason of the delay?" the woman asked.

The response from the shuttle came momentarily, "target’s resistance was stronger than pre-mission intelligence. We were delayed making field repairs to the shuttle."

"And you couldn't report about it back to base?" the woman asked angrily.

"You ordered to keep the radio silence, ma'am!" came a response.

The woman nodded, smiling to herself, "permission to land granted," she said, "bring the quarian to the control room."

***

Shepard leaned back from the comm-console with a heavy sight. It looked like Cerberus bought the deception and they could proceed. The plan Legion came up with was risky, but if they would be careful, they could manage to take over the facility without even breaking a sweat. Cerberus wouldn't even realize what hit them. A part of Shepard still refused to believe that it would be so easy, he still felt like they were missing a crucial detail. The reason for his concern was the voice of the second operative over the comm-link. The female voice was so very familiar, but he couldn't put a finger on exactly where he could have heard it before.

Shepard turned his head to look at the three other men. James and Kaidan were making the final check-ups of the armor they acquired in the shuttle, while Legion stood close to the exit with his hands cuffed behind his back.

"Loco, this armor is shit," Vega said with a sigh, "they could have made it out cardboard; at least it'd saved them some money."

"Cerberus prefers quantity over quality for their ground troops," Legion explained, "they still have plenty of troopers, thanks to their abduction of civilians and indoctrination research."

"Yeah, and looks like they don't even bother to stick to humans only anymore," Kaidan supplied pointing at a set of armor in the shuttle’s locker which was designed for quarians.

“That is accurate," Legion nodded, "over a hundred quarians have been abducted and forcibly converted into Cerberus troopers over the past several days. Thankfully for us, the majority of those quarian soldiers have been transported somewhere else," he added, "there is approximately fifty operatives in the base."

"Only fifty, huh?" Kaidan chuckled sarcastically.

"All right," Shepard stepped closer to the exit, placing a white helmet over his head, "if everything goes right, we'll have a few hundred geth on our side before sunrise," he said opening the shuttle door and pushing Legion ahead, forcefully enough for it to look authentic, but carefully not to cause any real discomfort.

***

Jona sat on a metal bench in a cell, holding his knee pressed to his chest. The entrance to the cell was protected by a kinetic barrier through which he could see at least three guards in the adjacent room. Even if Jona still had his omni-tool and could manage to take the barrier down, there wasn't a single way he could pass those guards, especially with the fever he felt rising inside him.

Jona wanted to cry, but he was holding the tears back, as he didn't want to show weakness to people keeping him captive. Several times the idea of telling the truth crossed his mind, but Jona decided against it. He doubted someone would believe him, not to mention that he had no way to know how many of them were Cerberus infiltrators, who would not only alert their masters, but also release the virus.

Jona knew that sooner or later it would happen anyway, because his omni-tool with the data-pack he received from Legion was taken from him. Someone for sure was working on its decryption now. The only thing he could do, was to buy Shepard some time with his silence, hoping that it would be enough.

A guard approached his cell. Thankfully, it wasn't the captain of the guards who brought him here, because at least he wouldn't have to listen to another round of insults.

"Still don't want to talk?" the guard asked with a heavy sigh. Jona turned his head away looking at the plain wall of the cell. "Listen, several more hours without medical attention and your life may be in danger," the guard said with a note of regret.

"Good, because if I die, it will at least be a reason to bring your boss to justice," Jona replied angrily.

"I don’t think it's going to happen," the other quarian shook his head, "the Conclave was turning their heads away for almost a year. I doubt they have time to deal --"

The omni-tool on his wrist beeped, interrupting him. The guard hurried to activate it, accepting the incoming call. "Yes?" he said into the audio receiver on the device.

"Release prisoner Jona'Hazt vas Ghrigult and bring him to the central labs," a familiar voice of the guard captain commanded.

"But, sir," the guard protested surprised, "you said to keep him until he'll tell where the human hero is."

"The boy was simply showing the hero around the city. Shepard is safe in his quarters now," the captain explained, "now carry out your damn orders!" he yelled at the guard.

"Yes, sir!" The guard replied. With a sigh, he turning the kinetic barrier off, "follow me," he nodded to Jona.

The young quarian was pretty sure Shepard wasn't in the city, so the captain of the guard was lying. Jona had no idea why he would lie considering how enthusiastic he was to lock Jona in the cell, but decided to go with it, as it was probably the only way out for him.

"My omni-tool!" he suddenly remembered, "I need it."

The guard nodded and disappeared into another room, returning in several moments with a small bracelet, returning it to Jona. Considering how little time it took to retrieve it, it looked like they didn't even bother to find what was on the device.

Several other guards gave them confused looks as they were exiting the building, but when they tried to find out what was going on, each of them were momentarily receiving calls from the captain. The exit was close, several more meters and Jona would be free. The dizziness of the fever he had was dulled with the excitement.

Finally, the door from the guard station opened and Jona stepped outside to inhale the fresh night air, which was surprisingly pleasant to feel without the mask. Besides the fresh air, Jona found himself face to face with the captain of the guards himself, who was looking at the young quarian and the guard escorting him, holding his hands on his hips.

"What is going on?" he inquired angrily.

"You ordered me to escort the prisoner to the central lab," the guard shrugged his shoulders.

"Did I?" the captain hummed. His omni-tool beeped.

"They are free to go, it's an order," the captain's own voice said through the speaker.

"Oh really?" the captain replied, "on whose authority?" he laughed sarcastically.

For a moment the person with the captain's voice was silent, "that... didn't work as I planned," Jona heard a familiar female voice of the _Normandy_ 's AI after the pause, "plan B," she added somewhat cheerfully.

An electrical discharge spreaded from the omni-tools of the captain and the guard, enveloping their suits. Both of them jerked and fell down to the floor. "Now," EDI said though Jona's own omni-tool, "get to the central lab as soon as possible," she commanded, "I will guide you through the patrols."

***

The corridor leading to the control room was empty. There were several doors leading in both direction, most of which were locked. Two Cerberus troopers walked down the corridor towards the fork leading to another passage.

A third trooper appeared from one of the doors, nearly bumping into them, "oh, sorry, guys," he mumbled.

"What are you doing here? There shouldn't be anyone here but our patrol," one of the troopers said.

"I guess, I got lost," the third one confessed shyly, "could you point me towards the restrooms? Otherwise, I’m really gonna piss my pants," he chuckled, stepping uncomfortably from one foot to another.

The two Cerberus soldiers exchanged looks, "you should not be here," the trooper repeated with no emotion like he was programed to say it, starting to reach towards the communicator on his helmet.

He never managed to call anyone, as the next moment a weave of blue energy enveloped him, making him freeze in place. The second Cerberus trooper turned around to see what was behind them, but the metal surface of a pipe collided with his head with a loud thud, making him spin on the spot. The lost trooper caught him mid-way before his armored body had time to hit the floor and make any more noise. Then the lost trooper raised his head, "couldn't you come up with anything more loud?" he hissed.

"What," Vega shrugged his shoulders looking at the metal pipe in his hands, "I don't have fancy biotics or anything."

Shepard shook his head. "All right, we need to hide them," he whispered, lowering the knocked down guy and starting to drag him towards one of the doors in the corridor. Vega started to drag the second one, while Kaidan maintained the stasis field

The room they found themselves in was small. It was almost empty beside a small construct in the very middle. Shepard shivered unintentionally noticing four geth primes standing in a circle around a communication hub. They looked inactive.

"Damn, there are at least a hundred of these rooms in the facility," Vega whistled looking at the geth.

"Yeah, lets hope Legion's plan will work," Shepard replied, "I wouldn't want to fight through those guys on top of Cerberus."

As Legion explained, the geth could only be activated by a signal of his neurological impulses. After that Cerberus was planning to use a control code, developed from his own reaper programming. Luckily, Legion managed to escape with a copy of this code and figured to rewrite it, so each geth would return back to life with their own free will, and not be a puppet of Cerberus. Now Shepard, Kaidan and James only had to reach the control room, where Legion was held and switch the programs. The plan was easy enough and so far they had not encountered any obstacles. Shepard only hoped that the luck would continue to be on their side until the end.

Shepard placed the unconscious Cerberus soldier next to the hub, taking the helmet off his head and looking at his face. The face of the soldier was very young, Shepard would’ve guessed he was under twenty, but his eyes were glowing brightly blue, like the ones of a husk. "Shit," Shepard groaned, "not even humans anymore," he said.

"Nothing we can do about it," Kaidan sighed looking at the unconscious guy.

Shepard nodded, entwining his arm around the guy's neck, placing his hands on the both sides of his head, twisting the head around in a quick clean motion. The neck snapped with a crack which sounded too loud in the empty room. He turned his head towards Vega the moment another cracking sound echoed through the room. It pained Shepard to kill someone unconscious, but they couldn’t risk them waking up and contacting anyone. Plus Shepard had no idea if it was possible to reverse whatever Cerberus had done to them and turn them back into humans.

Shepard placed the dead guy entirely on the ground starting to search him for the roster assignment. It didn't take long until two data-pads were found and taken from the bodies.

"Switch the helmets too," Shepard pointed out, "if anyone contacts them through the short range communicators, we will be able to respond."

Vega nodded taking the helmet off the second body's head, then looked at Shepard and Kaidan, "I don't want to be that guy who states obvious things, but there are two of them and three of us," he said.

"Someone will have to stay behind in this room," Shepard replied.

"Yeah, that what I thought," Vega nodded, throwing the helmet to Kaidan, who didn't expect the pass, but caught it with aplomb. When Vega received a surprised glance from Shepard, he only shrugged his shoulders, "out of three of us, L2 is the best tech expert and we all know it," he explained, "plus I really stand out," he added looking down at his visibly bulkier body, "surprised they didn't think to check."

Shepard nodded, taking both of the data-pads and passing one to Kaidan. "Alright then, let's go, before they start to wonder why is the guard replacement is late," he said, switching the helmet on his head and moving towards the exit.

"And guys," Vega called out, "good luck out there."

Shepard nodded back to the major and exited the room.

The corridor was still quiet and empty. Shepard glanced at Kaidan one more time and, receiving an approving nod, started to march forward. This smaller corridor was connected to another one, which was wider and brightly lid. There were more Cerberus people wandering around. Mostly they were just soldiers, but sometimes Shepard would see people in lab coats exiting and entering different doors.

A door a few meters ahead of them opened and two people exited the room. One of them was a blond woman. The second one was a man in his late thirties, with short brown hair and a laboratory coat. Shepard's breath hitched as he recognised the man. He found himself nearly paralyzed by the urge of reaching out and grabbing him. It was Donovan Banet, the man who lead the cloning research on Horizon, who took the girl from the orphanage, right from under Shepard's nose.

"What else could I do?" Banet groaned quietly to the woman walking beside him, "nearly every single relay in Alliance space is heavily guarded."

"You got the paperwork needed to proceed safely through any custom," the woman replied coldly. When she started to talk, Shepard finally remembered why she looked so familiar. It was the scientist he saw on the vid in the Cerberus headquarters, at Cronos station. On the vid she talked to the Illusive Man before a weird procedure which turned him into the monster Shepard saw on the Citadel afterwards. The Illusive Man called her Jana. Later on, Shepard received an intel about Jana being the second highest ranking Cerberus operative and the right hand of the Illusive Man himself.

On the vid Jana was in a white coat, but now she was wearing a suit made of black leather. Her arms were protected by metal shoulder plates, armbands and gauntlets, together with a silvery bracelet on one of her wrists. On her back Shepard saw a blue light of a portable shield generator. He suspected, that altogether her outfit wasn't for show. He had never encountered her before, but he knew what high ranking Cerberus operatives were capable of.

"My paperwork is worth nothing, after my face appeared on every wanted poster in every outpost through over Council space" he hissed, "plus, Shepard was on my ass the entire way."

"Oh, and that is why you brought her here, while the _Normandy_ is docked merely a few hours of flight away," Jana replied.

Shepard felt a groan trying to escape his lips as his entire body shivered. Fortunately he managed to suppress the sound. He almost lost his control, realizing that the girl they were looking for was here, right now. It was so easy to take a gun into his hand, to shoot the people walking just a few meters ahead of him, to reach out and grab one of them, interrogate. His hand already started to reach for the holster on the side.

As if Kaidan was sensing his inner fight, he reached for his husband and touched his forearm. The biotic's hand lingered on Shepard just for a moment and disappear before anyone could notice the gesture, but it was enough to snap Shepard back into reality, making him ashamed of nearly losing control, of succumbing to the impulse. He shivered again, realizing that if Kaidn didn't stop him, they all would have been killed.

They proceeded further towards the control room, where Legion was held. The two Cerberus agents headed the same exact way, disappearing into the room. The lock on the door momentarily turned red.

Shepard and Kaidan stopped before the two guards stationed at the room entrance. Shepard offered the data-pad with assignment roaster to one of them. Before he even had time to open his mouth, the guard spoke, "finally," he sighed, taking the data-pad, not even looking at it, "I thought our schedule would never end," he shook his head and walked away, followed by the second guard.

"Looks like they aren’t afraid of anyone infiltrating them," Kaidan whispered as they found themselves alone at the end of the corridor, "we could've brought them empty pads, and they would’ve bought it."

Shepard averted his head. He honestly didn’t even hear what Kaidan was saying. The mission took an unexpected turn and he had a possibility of ending Cerberus right here. He didn't know why, but he knew Cerberus needed the girl, plus Cerberus' second in command herself was here. Without the Illusive Man, it was logical to assume that she inherited everything, she was the one pulling the strings. If Shepard thought fast, he could come up with an idea of stopping them. Maybe he could contact EDI, so she would convince the quarians to assault the base while he'd grab the girl and get out, or maybe...

Shepard's line of thought was disturbed once again by Kaidan's hand, "Commander," the major whispered angrily, "concentrate, dammit!"

Shepard nodded, but the level of his anger didn't decrease, his head was still trying to come up with something to outsmart everyone.

The only thing which managed to return him fully into reality was the sound of a gunshot coming from behind the locked door. Shepard inhaled deeply, frightened for Legion, swearing under his breath. The lock on the door turned green and Jana stomped out the room. Her face was flaring with almost mad anger. In her hand, she held another silvery bracelet, similar to the one she wore. She quickly snapped the bracelet on her second wrist and her face changed into a calmer one in a matter of seconds, "what a worthless piece of shit!" she sighed almost indifferently, before turning to Shepard, "stop standing like a decoration, go and clean that mess," she ordered, before leaving them, not even waiting for the commander to respond.

Shepard glanced at Kaidan who gave him a nod, then turned to walk through the still open door. The room was large and sombre. The lights coming from the panels on the far end were illuminating it with a faint blue light, giving enough visibility to look around. Behind the panels was stated a spherical construction with the familiar quarian frame strapped into it. Dozens of different tubes and wires were connected to the machine and the quarian himself. On the floor, in front of the terminals, in a pool of blood, laid the body of Donovan Bonet.

"Shit!" Shepard groaned, moving his eyes from the body to Legion, who opened his eyes the moment they walked in and now was watching them carefully.

"Shepard-Commander?" Legion asked.

"Yeah, that's me," Shepard nodded, "how are you holding up?"

"The experience of being connected to this device proved to be rather... painful, but I managed to resist their attempts to force me into activating the geth," Legion said, "I won't be able to hold much longer, so I would appreciate if you start the upload," he added.

Kaidan moved to the panel, scanning it with his omni-tool, while Shepard locked the door behind them and walked towards Bonet's body, examining it. There were several fake IDs on the man, none of which stated his real name. There also were three cred-chits with almost thousand credits on each, a set of keys with a ridiculous anime-girl keychain and several mechanical pencils in the chest-pocket of his coat. His own omni-tool was scrambled, but Shepard took it anyway, because he knew EDI could pull at least some data out of it.

"The terminal is firewalled," Kaidan said, "I will need some time to pass it."

"Do it, and do it fast," Shepard nodded, before moving closer to his ex-geth friend. "Did you hear what they were talking about?" he asked Legion.

Legion looked down at the dead body, "the woman called the man a failure and the waste of money," Legion said, "the man argued that without him, project Blue Fire would have never succeeded. The woman replied that it was good that subject 07 was a success and they don't need him anymore. She also said that the girl is her responsibility from now on and that they will leave the planet immediately. Man tried to protest..."

Legion continued his recital of the conversation, but Shepard didn't hear anything after the part about immediate departure. "I need to go," he said turning to the door.

"Commander!" Kaidan protested, "where do you think you are going?"

Shepard ignored Kaidan's protest opening the door. "Finish the upload as fast as possible," he said leaving the room. He heard Kaidan calling his name, but didn't stop, moving down the corridor towards the door the two Cerberus operatives came from when Shepard encountered them the first time.

The door was unlocked and Shepard stepped in, taking the pistol into his hand. He found himself in a room similar to the one they left Vega in, but at the same time it was remodeled into an office. There was also a communication hub surrounded with geth, but beside it, there also was a table and a small coach. Shepard didn't have time to look around for more details as he noticed Jana standing next to the table, with her back turned to Shepard. The little girl was sitting on the couch. The girl's face was blank, emotionless, like she was just an empty body with no mind. Shepard realized that the child was drugged with sedatives and the mere thought about it, made the blood boil in his veins.

"I was wondering, when you’d show up," Jana said with a note of amusement reading in her voice.

Shepard froze, not expecting her to be so calm about finding him in her own office. He pointed his gun on her. "Then you know, that it is the best solution for you is to surrender," he warned.

"You think, you're such a hot shot, huh?" Jana chuckled, turning around and leaning on the table, looking Shepard right into the eyes with no fear.

"Well, I stopped the reapers," Shepard reminded.

"It was just luck, nothing more," the woman shook her head, "I saw the Lazarus project files. Cerberus made you neither smarter nor stronger than an average human. There is nothing special about you,” she said with a satisfied smirk.

"You want to see if you theory is correct?" Shepard asked keeping a bead on her.

"I have another idea," she smirked, "how about you just let us go and I won't press this small button on my omni-tool," she activated the orange device before Shepard could react, holding a finger over it, "and the quarians can live happily ever after."

Shepard groaned, remembering the virus. An entire city was on a tip of Jana's finger and Shepard had no idea if the young quarian managed to deliver the codes.

The answer to this question came unexpectedly from the speaker on Jana's omni-tool. "I don't think you can do it," Shepard  heard EDI's voice and was ready to burst into laughter, "I'm afraid your access codes were compromised and now are absolutely useless.”

The expression on Jana's face changed momentarily: self-confidence left her features, replaced by anger and desperation. She groaned, before her entire body started to glow blue. Shepard didn't waste time, shooting her several times, but each projectile was reflected by her biotic barrier.

Jana moved her hand and a wave of blue energy pushed Shepard out of the way. He found himself flying backwards and into the wall. It wasn't the worst collision the commander had had, but considering how sensitive his body was after the injuries, he couldn't help but wince as it ached in pain.

When Shepard finally managed to stand up, he found himself alone in the office. Without giving it a second thought, he rushed out the room, running after the woman and the child. A moment later he saw them heading to the exit and increased his pace, but a Cerberus trooper stepped into his way.

Before the Cerberus soldier could do anything, Shepard extracted his omni-blade, striking the soldier between the plates of armor on his neck. Blood splashed over the white armor Shepard was wearing and the trooper fall dead to the ground.

Unfortunately for Shepard, there were five other soldiers in the hallway. The moment the trooper's body hit the ground, they all turned towards him, pulling their weapons. A series of shots echoed through the facility as the commander started to duck behind a pile of crates next to one of the walls. Three of the flying bullets reached his body, stopped by the kinetic barrier, shattering it, and a fourth bullet hit the commander in the shoulder. Shepard hissed, pressing his back to the crates and breaking a capsule of medi-gel attached to his armor. The cool gel spread over small tubes under the armor, reaching the wound, sealing it, but his shoulder still burned with pain. It was also his only capsule.

Shepard groaned through his teeth, before peeking from under the crates and shooting one of the approaching troopers. It took three shots to take him down. From the corner of his eyes Shepard saw Jana, looking over the mess, before retreating through the gate which lead to the landing pad.

Shepard hid behind the crate again, taking a deep breath. He looked at his gun; there were only ten shots left, but even if he had more, he still doubted he could take all the troopers before Jana and the girl reached the shuttle.

"Take him down!" he heard someone shouting from behind and turned his head to see more troopers closing in. He was surrounded, no way he could come out of it alive.

The door next to him opened and another series of shots roamed through the hallway, taking every cerberus soldier standing before him and the exit. Shepard looked at the door and saw five geth emerging. Thankful for the rescue, he decided not to lose a single moment, rushing towards the hangar gate and outside, seeing Jana near the shuttles entrance.

"Stop right there!" he ordered, pointing his gun at her.

Jana turned around, grabbing the girl and pressing a pistol to her temple. "Let me go, or she will die!" she warned.

"You need her for something," Shepard argued, still holding the pistol pointed at the operative, "I don't yet know what for, but I'm planning to find out."

"Really?" Jana laughed, "she is just a test tube baby. I kill her, we can make another one!"

"You just gunned Banet. He was the one in charge of the project," Shepard reminded her.

"Banet was expendable," Jana shook her head, "Cerberus has the data for the project. It will take time to duplicate it, will take resources, but sooner or later we will have another subject. The girl is expendable too."

Shepard's hand jerked, but he didn't lower the gun. "You kill her and end up with a hole in your head the next moment," he said.

"Haven't you already tried it, like only a few minutes ago?" she chuckled, "It'd take more than your toy pistol to get me. What is it, M-77 Paladin?"

"Surrender now and your life still can be saved," Shepard tried again, even if he understood that his situation was hopeless.

"Listen, Shepard, we can talk the entire day about who is going shoot whom, but the truth is, I really can kill her and Cerberus will make another one. Then, of course you can try your luck again finding us, then again, untill you either save one of those cloned brats or Cerberus will get what they want."

For a long moment they were standing there looking at each other. Behind his back Shepard could hear gunfire, which meant the Cerberus troops still were occupied with the geth. He only hoped Vega and Kaidan would be smart enough to stay out of it.

"Fine," Shepard finally sighed, lowering his gun, even if it painted him to do it.

"Good boy," Jana smiled, kicking the door of the Kodiak open and backing inside the shuttle, still holding the girl close.

A moment later, Shepard heard the engines starting. A wave of warm air washed over him as the shuttle took off, kicking up the dust around it. Watching the shuttle to fly up into the air, taking a course towards the horizon.

Shepard's omni-tool beeped and a cheerful message from Joker came out of the device. "I have visual on the enemy, ready to take it down!" the pilot said.

Shepard raised his head and saw the _Normandy_ appearing from behind a mountain range, closing in to the shuttle, "stand down!" he ordered.

"Umm," Joker echoed confused, "the shuttle is right in front of me, I can take it down like nothing!"

"I repeat, stand down, let them go!" Shepard groaned.

"Roger that," Joker replied disappointed.

The commander sighed, watching the white Kodiak flying away, getting smaller and smaller with every passing second. He fell to his knees, burdened with exhaustion and desperation, not able to move his eyes away from the horizon. In moments it became impossible to see anything but the sky, which was slowly getting brighter and changing it's color from deep-blue to the mix of pink and orange, as the Tikkun sun slowly started to rise.

 


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter contains a mild mention of past suicidal thoughts.
> 
> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Shepard was accustomed to pain. Years of military service, all of the injures and an entire year with constant aches in his body had a tendency of doing it to a person. He was also stubborn and, as it was pointed out to him by many people who had to deal with him on a regular basis, careless about own health. Still, the moment they boarded the _Normandy_ disposing of the blood splattered Cerberus armor on the way, he went straight to the medical bay, accompanied by Kaidan, whose icy-cold look was a reason enough to stop pretending his wound didn't bother him even slightly.

He started to take off the top of his uniform and undershirt, wincing at the sting of pain as the cloth had stuck to the wound, tearing it open a little as he discarded the article of clothing. After that, he climbed on one of the beds, allowing Kaidan to clean and examine the wound.

The major worked slowly, almost methodically, cleaning the area around the torn flesh and applying more medi-gel. He was silent the entire time not sparing a single glance to Shepard as he went on with his task. In fact, Kaidan hadn't spoken a single word since they boarded and it was playing on the commander's nerves. At the same time he wasn't daring to start the conversation either, as he knew how much his husband was pissed.

Since Shepard first met Kaidan, he had learned that the biotic had several levels of anger. When something was only slightly pissing Kaidan off, he ignored it, pretending nothing was going on. When he was very pissed, Kaidan could snap, he could raise his voice and call some names, but usually he was calmed down very fast. There was a stage beyond that too, when Kaidan would spend hours in a reserved quiet brooding. For someone who didn't know him, it could look like he was fine, like he wasn't affected much, but Shepard knew what kind of emotional storm was happening inside his husband's head. It was also easy to guess who he was angry at.

Everything in the med bay and outside it was quiet. For the twenty minutes the two of them spent in the room, no-one had passed even close to the medical bay. Shepard suspected that they simply wanted to give the two of them space, or were afraid to get caught in a crossfire between two arguing men.

To tell the truth, Shepard would rather they argue it out right now, maybe get Kaidan to punch him for a good measure. Anything would've been better than the cold emotional distance his husband was keeping.

"The gel dispenser was really shitty on that armor," Kaidan finally said almost indifferently, "the lack of the undersuit didn't help either. There is going to be a scar left."

"It's going to get lost among the other ones," Shepard chuckled, trying to brighten up the mood. The icy stare Kaidan replied with, made the commander gulp.

"I'm done here," Kaidan nodded, turning around starting to walk towards the exit.

"Kaidan, wait!" Shepard called out, climbing down the bed, ignoring how much his body ached, protesting the amount of strain Shepard made it go through.

Kaidan didn't turn around, didn't say anything, but he stopped before the door.

"I'm sorry, Kaidan, I'm so sorry," Shepard pleaded, "I know it was stupid of me. My actions could have compromised the entire mission."

"To hell with the mission, Shepard," Kaidan groaned quietly, "you could've died there."

"I knew that you and James were safe, I knew you were going to finish the data upload in time --"

"Damn it," Kaidan interrupted him, turning to look at him this time "I don't doubt you stopped to think about us being safe, but have you ever stopped to think about you dying? Have you ever stopped to think what would happen to me in this case? I've mourned you twice. Twice!" his intonation raised at the end of the sentence, before he paused and took a deep breath. "You want to know something, something I've never told anyone, even you?" he continued, "those two months we spent lost on some planet, thinking you were dead; more than once during that time I thought about stopping the pain, simply ending it..." his voice shuddered as he turned his head to look away.

"Kaidan?" Shepard's eyes widened in shock. His mind conjured an image of his husband sitting somewhere in a dark corner with a gun in his hand and an empty bottle of liquor lying by his side. Kaidan was right, he had never stopped to think about what his death would do to Kaidan, to any of his friends for that matter. Granted, that during the war he had little choice, because in the end it was either him, or everyone else, but now things were different. Now Hackett could send anyone and Shepard had no doubt that no matter who it was, they could finish the mission, and yet he still was putting his life on the line of fire without even giving it much thought.

"No, don't worry," Kaidan shook his head, "I'm not... I'd never do it. I was dismissing the idea as soon as it appeared in my mind, trying to concentrate on work, on my family," he sighed looking up at Shepard again. "What I’m trying to say is, that after everything, you have no damn right to make me go through it ever again," he said seriously.

"Shit, Kaidan, I'm sorry," Shepard whispered, stepping closer to Kaidan, enveloping arms around his waist, resting his head in the crook of Kaidan's neck, "it was stupid of me, it was so stupid," he said pressing his lips against Kaidan's neck, inhaling the bitter smell of sweat and blood, as neither of them had had time to clean themselves properly yet.

"Yeah, it was," Kaidan agreed. For a moment he just stood there, not even moving, allowing Shepard to snuggle against him, then he sighed in defeat and reached for Shepard embracing him.

The door to the medbay opened, making Shepard step away from his husband, slightly uncomfortable to be caught in the private moment of tenderness. He looked up to see who entered the room and saw Legion, who looked completely unabashed by the picture in front of him.

"Shepard-Commander," Legion nodded, ignoring the frustrated glances from both men, "we will be arriving to Lah'Qwib shortly and I would appreciate you contacting the creators and informing them about geth passengers we are bringing with us," he said.

***

It was still early in the morning when the _Normandy_ reached the destination, but there were many people greeting the ship on the docking bay of Lah'Qwib. Shepard stood in the cockpit next to Joker and Legion, watching through the window screens the failing attempts of security personnel to keep people out of the docks. There was a lot of pushing and arguing and yelling outside, and the worst part was that Shepard wasn't even sure if all of those people gathered there to thank them or to attack them.

"Wow, no way we are getting out of the ship anytime soon," Joker commented with a sigh, "would be ridiculous to lose a life in a quarian riot."

"It is also ridiculous to be stuck onboard," Shepard replied.

A quarian shuttle appeared from one of the connection relays and approached the docks. Surprisingly, the excited crowd moved, freeing space for the shuttle to land. Shepard watched the familiar figures of four admirals emerging from the shuttle, accompanied by EDI and several guards who went ahead of the delegation to move the crowd back and create a corridor for the admirals to pass. Shepard noticed that the guards were doing a really good job, but mostly because the other quarians at the docking bay were cooperative.

"Permission to come aboard?" EDI asked cheerfully through the intercom.

"Permission granted," Shepard replied.

Joker grinned watching the group approach the ship, "you have no idea how good it is to see you returning back," he said.

"In case you managed to forget, Jeff," EDI said, "I've been on the ship the entire time."

"Oh, I'd never forget it," the pilot chuckled.

Shepard left the cockpit followed by the ex-geth, deciding to greet the admirals personally. They reached the airlock nearly at the same time as the door opened and the admirals entered the ship. Shepard crossed his arms over his chest, giving the guests a judgmental look.

"Shepard," Zaal'Koris nodded to the commander.

Shepard considered exchanging some pleasantries, but decided against it, going straight to the matter of business: "anything you want to tell me, Admirals?" he inquired raising an eyebrow.

Zaal'Koris started to speak, but was interrupted by Admiral Han'Gerrel, who placed his hand on Koris' shoulder silencing him before stepping forward. "If you returned from the geth hub, I suppose we don't need to tell you anything, as you should understand what kind of stress we were under," he said.

"I do understand," Shepard nodded, "it doesn't mean you should've hid it from me. I thought we were trying to have a common future, built on trust and cooperation."

"If we were to tell you anything," Admiral Xen supported, "you would have went there, putting our entire race at risk."

"And without you telling me, I went there anyway, while not having a clue of what to expect," Shepard protested.

"Which was a serious violation of our laws, if you were anyone but a Specter," Han'Gerrel pointed out.

"The quarantine was there for a reason and not a measure to prevent you from leaving," Xen added. "We needed time, so our laboratories could come up with a solution of preventing the virus to affect our suits."

"And that time was three days," Shepard guessed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers. The full extend of the situation started to finally catching up with him, despite the exhaustion.

"Precisely," Han'Gerrel nodded.

"Your lab wouldn't have been able to find a solution for this problem," EDI said, "the virus was more sophisticated than the quarians anticipated. As soon as anyone would have tried to manipulate the settings on quarian enviro-suits on a mass scale, every infiltrator would have received a command to release the virus. If not for the access codes Jona delivered to me from Legion, Lah'Qwib would have... ceased to exist," she explained.

"Legion?" Xen surprised, "you mean the geth? I thought he died over a year ago."

"No, I did not die," Legion stepped from behind the commander's back, shaking his head, "and it is good to see you again, admirals," he added.

The attention of the admirals switched to the quarian standing beside Shepard. They looked at him surprised, "That is not Legion," Gerrel pointed out confused.

"Ugh," Shepard rubbed the back of his neck, "It's a long story, why don’t we tell it on our way to the hospital? I really want to see Tali."

***

"What is the nature of Creator Zorah's illness?" Legion inquired as they reached Tali's hospital ward.

It was still too early for the scheduled surgery, but Shepard thought that seeing more friendly faces would be good for Tali, that it could reassure her, show her that they cared. Most of the Normandy crew came along and now waited for her to wake up.

"She is not ill," Garrus sighed not tearing his eyes from the glass window leading to the ward, "but she could die," his voice shuddered and he had to take a deep breath, "my... our child is slowly killing her."

Legion tilted his head looking at Garrus almost with no expression on the face, "but turians and quarians have DNA structure so different, that conceiving an offspring would be impossible," he said.

"Yeah, well," Garrus chuckled sarcastically, "tell that to the Mother Nature."

Legion turned his head to look at Tali who slept so peacefully on a bed surrounded with a contamination bubble. "What is the treatment?" Legion asked.

For a moment Garrus was silent, looking down at the floor, "getting the child out," he hissed quietly then, "nothing else would work."

"I would disagree," Legion replied.

Garrus head snapped back up to look at Legion in disbelief. Shepard didn't intend it, but his own head did the same. He felt hope rising inside him. "Do you know about ways of saving both Tali and the child?" he asked.

"Yes, I believe so," Legion nodded. "The geth modifications used in creators' enviro-suits were fooling quarian bodies to believe there was an infection, when there was none. It is possible to use the same modifications to make Tali'Zorah's body believe the fetus have the quarian DNA structure. With that, her body will stop its attempts to reject it, allowing the fetus to grow and develop normally."

Garrus turned to Legion fully, grabbing him by the shoulders and opening his mouth, staring at the quarian in awe, "can you do it?" he asked.

The quarian blinked, staring at Garrus in confusion, his head tilted to the side, "I wouldn't propose it if I couldn't," he nodded, "but there will be a small downside. It is likely that it will affect the child itself, making the quarian DNA dominated. The child may be born having little to no resemblance to turian," he explained.

Garrus exhaled in relief, "at that point I don't even care if the kid will look like a salarian, if it will save them both," he grinned, "please, do it."

Legion nodded, carefully detaching himself from the Garrus' grip, before turning around to search for something. His eyes stopped on a quarian doctor who was engaged in a conversation with Sonars and he moved towards the two of them.

Shepard watched him explaining the situation to the doctors, watched their surprised reaction. The quarian doctor gestured Legion to follow, leading the ex-geth into one of the facility rooms.

Garrus turned to the commander, "I...” he said in a mix of shock and excitement, “I don’t even know what to say," he shook his head then, “looks like I... looks like I’m going to be a father.”

Not even exhaustion and the lack of sleep prevented a wide smile from spreading over Shepard's face. He turned to his friend, placing a hand on Garrus' shoulder, "I'm happy for you," he said.

***

Jona woke up to the sound of birds chirping somewhere outside the window. He yawned, stretching on the bed and turning to the side, ignoring the unusual sensation of his silvery-white hair loose, falling over his eyes.

"I hope you are feeling better," he heard a familiar voice next to him.

Jona snapped his eyes open and sat on the bed in a quick motion, regretting it the next moment, as the weave of dizziness washed over him. Jona took several deep breaths, trying to stop the images float before his eyes and look around. When his vision returned to more or less normal, he saw that he was situated on a bed in what looked like to be a medical ward. His suite and clothes were gone, replaced with a sanitary bubble around the bed and a thin blanket covering him from waist down.

Next to the bed sat Legion. His head was turned to look at Jona, and the young quarian could see the helmet of his own enviro-suit laying on Legion's knees. His hands were resting on top of it, and he was still holding a single wire coming from the tube behind the helmet between his fingers. Legion was probably trying to fix it while waiting, Jona guessed.

The memories about events of the last night returned to him. He remembered running down the streets of Lah'Qwib, feeling the fever rising inside him, making it more and more difficult to move, he remembered reaching the laboratory and meeting EDI, but everything after it was a blur.

"Yeah, I do feel better," Jona nodded, looking down at himself. He flushed then, noticing his own state of undress and started to pull the blanket to cover his entire body.

"You were lucky that the level of local bacteria on Rannoch is so low," Legion said, "even after the prolonged exposure, it was easy to treat the infection. A small fever will still be present for five to seven days, but you don't have to stay in the hospital."

Jona nodded still looking nowhere else, but his own, covered with white fabric of the blanket, knees. Never in his life he'd felt so exposed. "Did, did we do it?" he asked finally.

"Yes," Legion nodded, "you did great."

Jona felt himself blushing even more hearing Legion complimenting him, "and the geth?" he inquired.

"They are safe," Legion replied, "some of them arrived to Lah'Qwib to negotiate peace."

For several next minutes both of them were silent. Jona wasn't sure how he felt about the news. His hate for the geth was the only thing that kept him going since his parents were killed. He heard about geth helping his people during the war, but hearing it and witnessing with own eyes was different. Even after wanting to kill Legion when he found out about who he was, Jona couldn't find any trace of hatred left in him. Instead he felt lost, confused.

"What are you planning to do now?" Jona asked.

Legion looked down at the helmet on his knees, "I’ve almost finished repairing your suit," he replied, "I am planning to modify it, so you will be able to improve your immune system, if you give me your consent on this matter."

Jona chuckled, "um, yeah, I guess I won't mind" he said, "but that's not what I meant, when asked what you were planning to do."

"Oh, you meant what I am planning to do with my... life," Legion said, and now it was his turn to look down at own body. "The admirals proposed me a position of the city guard captain after what happened to you, but then they changed their minds."

"Why?" Jona surprised.

"They decided that I'm not suitable for the position, as the former captain became hospitalized after I went to have a conversation with him," Legion explained. "He thought that the difference in muscle mass between him and I, and a demonstration of force could prevent his impeachment."

Jona knew that it was wrong to laugh at someone who got beaten up, even if happened to a really, really bad person, but he couldn't help it. He laughed loudly untill the muscles of his stomach started to ache and tears appeared in his eyes. It took him several minutes before he could restrain himself, wiping the dampness from his cheeks and taking several deep breaths. "So, now you don't have any plans?" he asked finally.

"It is not entirely correct," Legion shook his head, seemingly unaffected by any emotion on this matter, "I made a decision to join the crew of Shepard-Commander."

A smile disappeared from Jona's face. It was surprising how the news about Legion leaving was affecting him. "And what do you think I’m supposed to do?" he asked.

Legion looked him in the eyes and for the first time Jona could see a small smile appearing on his face, "there are many things you can do in life," Legion said, "the choice is yours."

***

It was strange, but surprisingly comforting to see Tali in the suit again. Shepard suspected that Tali herself didn't like the idea to be trapped in it, but it was difficult to shake off a feeling of familiarity when he saw her boarding the ship together with Garrus and Legion.

"Oh keelah," was the first thing she said to Shepard, "I wish I could have a drink."

Shepard chuckled embracing his friend, "I don't think that would do you any good," he said.

"I also heard that chocolate cakes were good for helping deal with stress," she sighed, hugging Sheppard back, "well, too bad I can't have any either."

"I'm sure we can think of something," Garrus proposed with a soft chuckle, "There are some sweet mixes among the dextro food supplies I ordered."

Tali nodded letting go of Shepard and returned to stand by Garrus' side.

"So it was you who ordered those containers?" Shepard hummed, "I thought it was sort of quarian 'thank you' gift. I was surprised why they decided to give us dextro-food, considering you were planning to stay in Lah'Qwib for awhile."

"We thought that Legion was going to stay and watch over the progress of my condition," Tali explained, "but..." she sighed.

Shepard looked over the couple as the third person boarded the ship. "There are hundred thirty six geth platforms left from my entire race," Legion said, "if not for you, they would have been destroyed or now serving Cerberus. Joining you on the mission is the least I can do to repay you for what you have done."

"Plus, come on, Shepard," Garrus joined in, "whom else would you trust to calibrate the _Normandy_ 's guns," he laughed.

Shepard moved his eyes from Tali and Garrus to Legion and back. "All right, then," he smiled, "welcome aboard."

***

The _Normandy_ was half way between Rannoch and the Tikkun mass relay. The adrenalin in Shepard's body started to wear off making him realize how tired he was. He not only haven't slept for over thirty hours, but had also managed to get into a fight. The only reason he hadn't collapsed yet was the pain in his entire body. His legs and back were aching so bad, that he was sure he wouldn't be able to fall asleep without taking the pills he managed to steal from the medbay over a week ago.

Shepard groaned in frustration, understanding that if Kaidan would catch him doing it, he would end up getting another lecture about health and self-preservation. Shepard sighed. He was almost ready to head to his quarters, but his omni-tool signaled about an incoming call.

"Yeah?" Shepard said, activating the link and could hear that even his voice sounded exhausted.

"It's Garrus," Shepard heard the turian reply, "I think you should come down the cargo bay, we've got an intruder."

Shepard narrowed his eyebrows. He almost thought about raising an alert, but Garrus' voice was what was stopped him. The turian didn't sound threatened or scared, but more amused. "I'll be right there," he said, turning to the elevator.

When the commander finally arrived at the cargo hold and saw what was going on, he caught himself swearing quietly under his breath. The place was almost empty, as most of the personnel had already headed to the crew quarters. Instead, in the very middle of the cargo hold, next to the two crates of dextro-food they've got on Rannoch, stood Garrus with his hands crossed over his chest. On one of the crates sat a quarian, whom Shepard immediately recognized as Jona.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Shepard exclaimed more annoyed than surprised.

Jona turned his head looking at the commander, "hey," he simply greeted waving his hand.

"I came here to check on the supplies, to take everything requiring cold storing into the fridge," Garrus started to explain, "and I found this guy in one of the crates. He doesn't have any weapons on him, so before alerting anyone I called you."

"That's allright, Garrus," Shepard said, realizing that the turian hadn't met Jona before, as he spent the entire time in the hospital with Tali, "he's harmless," then Shepard turned to Jona, "what the hell are you doing here?" he asked.

"I... umm," Jona started to speak, lowering his head and looking down. Shepard noted how uncomfortable the quarian sounded.

"Oh, for crying out loud," the commander shook his head, remembering the conversation he had with the ex-geth in the Cerberus shuttle, "don't tell me you snuck aboard to see Legion."

Jona didn't reply continuing to stare at the floor. After a moment he nodded once.

"I'm turning the ship around," Shepard shook his head. They were several hours away from Rannoch and would lose a lot of time, but there was no way Shepard could allow Jona to stay.

"No, please!" the quarian pleaded, jumping down the crate.

"Jona," Shepard exhaled, "This is a military vessel, it is not a place for civilians, nor are we providing transportation services."

"But you let Tali'Zorah join your crew when she was on the pilgrimage," Jona protested.

"When I met Tali, she was fighting off a handful of mercs better than some soldiers I knew," Shepard replied, "and I admit, your help on the planet surface was invaluable, but I saw you holding a gun -- with that stance you'd miss an aim five meters away from you. You have no proper training."

"I can be useful, my engineering skills aren't bad," he tried again, changing his persuasion tactics.

"We have more than enough engineers," Shepard shook his head.

"I can clean."

"Everyone on the ship is on the roster for cleaning duties," Shepard explained, "it's sort of a part of military service."

"And why haven't I seen you scrubbing latrines?" the turain whistled as a matter of fact.

"Not helping, Garrus," Shepard turned to look at his friend swiftly, gifting him with a disapproving glance.

For a moment Jona was silent not daring to tear his gaze away from the commander. Shepard could see that he was desperately searching for more reasons to stay. Finally he blinked and his eyes brightened, "I am a really good cook," he said, "my mother used to work all the time and I had to make my own meals. I had a lot of practice."

Shepard raised his eyebrow, "you don't even eat the same food we do," he reminded.

"The ingredients are different, but the principle is the same. Look at a recipe, mix the ingredients, cook. Plus, I'm sure Tali'Zorah will appreciate better meals than mixes from plastic bags," he added turning to Garrus.

Shepard stood silently, gazing at the quarian. He heard Garrus humming thoughtfully beside him and sighed. "I'm going to regret this one, aren’t I?" he said finally, shaking his head.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

The _Normandy_ was quiet at the late hour, as almost everyone, except for the night shift and security personnel, was long asleep in their bunks.The illumination was dimmed, and if not for the rows of emergency lights on the walls, it was almost too dark to navigate around the ship without bumping into anything.

Traynor yawned wide as she exited the restrooms, changed into a pair of cozy pajama pants and a soft cotton shirt with a picture of two cuddling kittens on its front. A small white towel was hanging over one of her shoulders, and in the right hand she was carrying a small plastic basket filled with toiletries.

Traynor, as the majority of the crucial crew on the ship, didn’t get any sleep the previous night and wished she was in her bed at least an hour ago. She wasn't even sure why she decided to finish clearing the data EDI extracted from the omni-tool Shepard brought for them to decrypt. She remembered him saying something along the lines of needing it as soon as possible, which didn't exactly mean she had to stay up half of the night again.

Traynor was almost at the door to the crew quarters when she noticed a shadow on the other side of the corridor. It moved towards the observation port, opening the door with a quiet hiss, before disappearing behind it. It was too dark to see who it was, but Traynor felt a small sting of anger rising inside her. The communication specialist reached for the basket, extracting her toothbrush and clenching into it like it was a weapon, before she moved towards the observation room.

If it were Ken and Gabby who decided to have some private time where normal people were relaxing with a good book in hands again, she thought, she was going to interfere.

Not that she was against them having a time together. The _Normandy_ was probably the only ship in the Alliance fleet which had so many couples on board, that if one would take every vid from the surveillance cameras, cut them and add some sound effects ontop, it was possible to make a decent sitcom. No, she wasn’t against them together at all, she simply didn’t want to think on which couch in the observation room people had had sex, before taking a seat there. Especially while Ken and Gabby had an entire room under the engineering deck for such purposes.

Traynor opened the door walking into the room with a large observation port. The port itself was open, but it was still too dark to distinguish anything but the shapes of the seats in front of it. A sound reached her ears from the corner of the room. It was a quiet rumble of paper mixed with even quieter whispers, repeating, 'no, no, no,' over and over again. Trynor recognized the voice. She sighed, flicking the lights on and looked at the corner the noises were coming from. There, crouched on the ground, was sitting Private Neith, who was going through a small pile of books scattered around her, flipping through the pages and mumbling something incoherent.

"Erika?" Traynor called out, but there wasn't any response.

Traynor moved closer to the private who was also changed into her pajamas by now. Not paying Traynor any attention, she continued flipping through the pages of a book currently in her hands, not even looking at it. Her eyes were focused on the wall, glossy and without any sign of comprehension in them.

"Erika," Traynor repeated stepping forward and placing her hand on the other girl's shoulder.

Neith stopped still, before her entire body jerked away from the touch. The private exhaled loudly turning her eyes to Traynor, blinking. "What? what is going on?" she asked.

"Um, I don’t know, I just found you here," Traynor explained raising an eyebrow, "oh, don't tell me you were sleepwalking," she grinned then.

Neith looked around herself, her eyes wide in panic. "I... I don't remember how I ended here. I was sleeping in my bed, I swear!" she said.

"Well, yeah, you were totally sleepwalking," Traynor said, trying to keep her expression serious, "don't worry, I'm not making fun of you," she added as she noticed the annoyed glance from the other girl.

Neith stood from the floor, looking at the mess she made, "I... I was having a dream," she said with a sigh.

Trynor nodded, walking towards one of the couches and taking a seat, patting the spot next to her in a silent invitation, "do you want to talk?" she asked.

Neith gave Traynor a sceptical look, but then sighed again, stepping to the couch and taking a seat next to the com specialist. For almost a minute she was silent, looking through the observation port at the hundreds of stars moving slowly before their eyes. "Just a nightmare," she said finally, "nothing particularly strange. Like I was in a hospital, but I didn't really belong there, like there was nothing wrong with me, but they kept me locked anyway. I felt like I needed to sneak into the main office and find my file," she laughed, "what a weird dream."

"Oh, I don't know," Traynor smiled warmly, "hospitals are all that way, and whenever you find yourself in one, you always feel like you don't belong there."

Traynor noticed a pained expression cross Neith’s face, like Traynor had just said something wrong. She gulped, feeling a heat raising to her cheeks. She felt like it was one of those situation when a person should either retreat or push forward as far as it was possible. She reached tentatively to Neith knee, placing her hand over it, giving it a gentle squeeze. "You know, that if there is something bothering you, you can always talk to me," she encouraged.

Neith turned her head to look at Traynor and their eyes met, "it is... very nice of you," she smiled.

Feeling like it was her only chance, Traynor closed her eyes and leaned towards the private. Only to meet with an empty spot before her.

Neith almost jumped from the couch, eyeing the communication specialist with wide eyes. "It is, umm," she chuckled nervously rubbing the back of her neck, "I didn't know... and, well... I'm not," she shook her head, "I mean, I like you and everything, but," she took a deep breath, "not interested, sorry," she exhaled shutting her eyes, before she turned on her heel and fled the observation room altogether.

Trynor sighed out loud, covering her face with the palm of her hand, feeling extremely embarrassed and annoyed at herself. After another moment of pondering what she was going to say to Neith in the morning to make it possible for them to at least communicate without being awkward, she stood from the couch, deciding to return to the crew quarters and finally get some sleep.

Before she exited the room, her gaze slid at the pile of books laying on the ground. It looked like the sleep had to wait for another ten  minutes, untill she would be able to return the book to the shelf. In the end she did believe it was her own fault Neith ran away.

***

Shepard exited the shower wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. He spared one glance to the bed, where Kaidan was fast asleep and smiled. After the mission which took way longer than anyone anticipated, the desire of finally climbing into the warmth of his sleeping place was great. Shepard wasn't even sure where he managed to find strength to force himself into the shower, but he was grateful that he did. For once, it eased the pain in his body to a level that he could actually fall asleep on his own, and also because he knew that he would get less rest if he'd had to smell his own sweat and blood the entire night.

The commander had only had time to slip on a pair of boxers, when someone knocked on his door. He groaned in frustration realizing that he yet again forgot to activate the privacy protocol.

"One moment," he said to the closed door, hoping it wouldn’t wake his husband.

Shepard moved to his locker, quickly putting a pair of uniform pants and a shirt on, before returning to the door and opening it, slipping into the small area adjacent to his quarters.

"Shepard," EDI greeted.

"Ugh, do you have any idea what time is it?" Shepard sighed, rubbing his eyes.

"Of course, it is 2356, Alliance standard," EDI nodded.

"It is over twenty three hundred, while I haven't gotten any shut-eye in two days, EDI," Shepard pointed out. "What did you want?"

"I brought you a report on the data we managed to extract from the omni-tool you provided us with," EDI said, offering the commander a data-pad, "I would like to point out that Specialist Traynor's help was very useful," she added.

"Oh, EDI," Shepard sighed, "I appreciate your commitment, but I hope you don't mind me reading the report tomorrow. I can't even concentrate on the letters."

"There is no reason for me to mind it, Shepard," the AI smiled.

Shepard nodded again, turning around to return to his quarters, but was stopped by a hand placed on his shoulder. "Shepard, I have a question," he heard EDI saying and turned back to face the AI.

"Yes, EDI?" the commander inquired in disbelieve.

"It is about Legion," EDI explained, "about him obtaining an organic body."

Shepard understood that this conversation was going to take longer than a few moments. He walked past EDI, gesturing her to follow, and approached a banister fencing the small space before the captain's cabin, leaning on it. "What about it?" he asked.

"I was thinking if it was fortunate or not that his programming core was transferred into a body made of flesh and blood," she started to explain, "I realize that it must feel different for him, but I wonder how different it feels."

"EDI, you know that I can't answer this question, the only way to find out is to ask Legion himself," Shepard replied.

"I did ask him," EDI supplied, "but the only answer I got from him was that it feels strange. I do not fully understand that concept."

"I really don't want to disappoint you, but I can't say that I understand it either," Shepard said.

EDI turned her head away looking somewhere on the wall. Shepard might have been really tired, but he couldn't miss an air of disappointment in EDI's human-like features. "Do you think it would be possible for me to obtain a human body?" she asked.

Shepard hummed in surprise, "you do know at what cost Legion got his body, don't you?" he asked, "several quarians died during experiments, before they were able to create a clone with DNA was suitable for him. And don't forget that this clone was more than likely to have a mind of his own, before they ripped it out, replacing it with Legion's programming. Cerberus played with life without thinking of the consequences," Shepard almost groaned as he felt anger rising in him. He was happy that Legion was well, but the story with cloning simply was striking to close to home for the commander. "It is unethical,” he finally concluded.

EDI looked at Shepard again, tilting her head, "nearly every organic race in the galaxy practice abortion. While in Tali’s case it was a decision made to save her, in many other cases it is done simply because parents don't want the child," she said, "doesn't creating new life naturally and then destroying it as much unethical as creating it artificially and destroying it?"

Shepard looked at the AI surprised, not sure how to proceed. "EDI, I really don't know," he shook his head, "maybe it’s because people don’t make babies with the purpose of killing them later, they don’t plan it, but honestly no-one knows answers to the questions of moral. Nothing is really black and white in the world, there are circumstances."

"I see," EDI nodded, and Shepard could hear that she still was disappointed.

"Besides," Shepard shrugged, "why would you want an organic body? Do you think it would make you to understand us more?" he asked.

"It is possible," the AI agreed.

"Don't you think you understand us well enough?" Shepard asked, placing a hand on EDI's shoulder. It felt warm under his touch. "Granted, everyone on the ship was weary of you at the beginning, but it only took to get to know you better to see that you were not that different from us. Say, do you love Joker?" he asked.

EDI blinked, before averting her eyes, "it might not be caused by chemical processes, but more positive feedbacks I'm getting when I’m close to him, but I think I can say that yes, I do love Jeff," she confessed.

"What difference does the cause of your feelings make?" Shepard smiled, "maybe you were created from a computer program, but you're alive. You have become a member of the _Normandy_ 's crew, and a good friend."

EDI looked at the commander again, but she didn't look convinced. "I appreciate the sentiment, but there is a difference between us, Shepard," she said.

"And what is it?" the commander inquired.

"You die," EDI replied simply, "you age and you die. I will never age. I spent some time studying asari philosophy, but didn't find it relevant. Even when Liara, Javik, Wrex and Grunt will die of old age, I will still be around. Taking one’s own life is also considered unethical by organic standards."

Shepard eyed the AI with shock, "EDI," he whispered, "I wish I could say something to make you feel better, I wish I had answers, but I don't, I'm sorry." He then sighed and shook his head, "I myself have questions no-one will ever be able to answer, lots of them," he confessed, "everyone does."

EDI didn't reply. She stood next to the commander looking at the faint red lights on the wall behind the banisters, "I know," she finally nodded, "I really appreciate you talking to me about it. It really helped to share my thoughts with someone."

"Any time, EDI," Shepard smiled faintly.

***

No matter how tired Shepard was, he found it difficult to fall asleep. Restless, he was laying on the bed, staring out the window port above his head. The thoughts filling his head and preventing him from sleep were so diverse, that it was difficult to concentrate on any one in particular. Shepard thought about his conversation with Kaidan, when he admitted to be reckless, he thought about the girl, remembering her blank expression, her empty eyes, he thought about the conversation with EDI about human morals.

Besides him, Kaidan mumbled something incoherent, turning in his sleep and scooching closer, placing his arm over the commander's bare chest. Shepard relaxed in his husband embrace, turning his head and leaning in to place a soft kiss on Kaidan’s cheek.

“Sleep already,” Kaidan murmured through his slumber and sighed deeply.

Shepard wasn’t sure if Kaidan ordered him to sleep without even waking up, or he actually woke up, but fell back into sleep almost immediately, because his husband’s breath was even, relaxed and each exhale of warm air was pleasantly tickling the commander’s neck. Through the muscles of his own shoulder, Shepard could feel the steady beats of Kaidan’s heart. It was relaxing, like silent drums, beating a rhythm of a wordless lullaby, inviting him to forget about everything and joining Kaidan in a tranquil rest.

Shepard spared one final glance to a port above his head, looking for the last time at the endless void filled with stars and planets, amused with his own middle-of-a-night poetism, before his eyes closed on their own accord and the reality slowly started to drift out of Shepard’s grasp.

The next time Shepard opened his eyes was only five hours after he fell asleep. He tried to take a deep breath, but his chest started to ache as bad as the previous time. It felt like someone stabbed him with a knife and now was twisting it around. Shepard made every attempt not to move, not to wake Kaidan, who was still snuggled against him.

After five minutes of holding still, the pain started to dissipate, but on its place came nausea. Sheard barely had time to climb from under Kaidan's arm and reach the restroom, bending over the toilet, when his stomach turned inside out, emptying itself into the bowl. When there was nothing left inside the stomach, Shepard moved away from the toilet, leaning against the wall, trying to catch his breath.

After several minutes of sitting on the floor, he sighed and started to stand. He flushed the toilet, noticing traces of blood in the gross mess of half-digested food. That wasn't good. It was the second time it was happening to him and, if the first time he could blame it on stress, the repetition of it meant there was something more to it. He looked at the mirror noting that yes, there was also a fresh stream of blood running under his nose.

Shepard washed his face, before returning to the bunk section of his quarters, noting that Kaidan was still asleep. He grabbed the pair of pants and a shirt, before exiting the captain's cabin and heading to the lower deck.

Shepard knew that Doctor Sonars rarely slept in the crew quarters, preferring to bunk in the med bay. He knocked on the door, while leaning on the doorframe, enjoying the way the cold metal was soothing his overheated skin.

The door opened a minute later, the doctor appeared before the commander. She was fully dressed, but looked like she had just woken up, rubbing her eyes and looking at Shepard with surprise. "Something is the matter?" she asked, "It's barely after five," she stated.

"Yeah, there is definitely something wrong with me," Shepard nodded.

Sonars looked him over more carefully, "yeah, you look like shit," she agreed, "come on in," she invited walking back into the medbay and turning on the lights. The sudden transition from almost pitch-dark to daylight bright made Shepard’s head spin. He winced as yet another wave of nausea started to crawl its way to his guts, but this time he was able to steady his breath and fight the uncomfortable feeling off.

He didn’t exactly see, as much as he felt Sonar’s hand guiding him to one of the beds and sitting him down. A familiar buzz of an active omni-tool sounded from somewhere near his face, before it moved lower over the entire length of his body.

“The readings from your implants are off,” Shepard heard the doctor’s voice, moments before everything started to come into focus again.

“What,” Shepard took a deep breath, “what do you mean?” he asked.

For a moment Sonars was silent. Shepard still had a little bit of trouble concentrating on the images before his eyes, but he thought he caught her chewing on her lower lip, her expression seemed uncertain.

“I don’t know,” she finally shook her head. She turned away walking to her working desk and leaning on it with her hands, “the files in the _Normandy_ 's database about the Lazarus project aren't very informative," she explained.

“But I know for sure, that Alliance had the full dossier on the matter, they should’ve shared it with you,” Shepard said in disbelief.

“Perhaps,” Sonars nodded still looking down at her table, “I did ask about the files after my decision to join the crew, but the military brass were all hush-hush about it. I mean, I still don’t fully understand what it was about, just that those implants saved your life.”

Shepard felt a small shiver running down his spine, but this time he was sure it wasn’t connected to the malfunction of the implants. Sonars didn’t know. Almost no-one besides the most high ranking Alliance and Cerberus officers knew what happened then. For majority of people Shepard spent two years of his life in coma, fighting for own life.

But his crew knew. And if he wanted every member to trust him unconditionally, he needed to trust them too. “They didn’t save my life,” he said looking down at his own knees, “they brought me back to life. I was dead. Clinically brain dead,” he confessed.

Sonars turned from her table to look at the commander in disbelief. To Shepard it looked like she was trying to say something, but changed her mind, shaking her head instead. “Wow,” she simply nodded after a pause, “that is --”

“Classified information, so I hope you understand the implication of me revealing it to you,” Shepard supplied. He knew that it wasn’t exactly what Sonars was thinking about, but he suspected that whatever she was about to say was going to make him feel like a guinea pig all over again.

“I understand,” the doctor nodded not tearing her eyes away from the commander, “but there is another matter I need to talk to you about,” she said, “I didn’t receive any information from the Alliance HQ on the matter of implants, but I do have a protocol in case of any implant malfunctioning,” she sighed, “I have an authorization to sign you off as not fit for duty. I’m sorry, I --”

"No!" Shepard cut her off maybe a little too harsh, then he anticipated. An image of him returning to Earth and being grounded again, while Cerberus was celebrating a victory, a memory of a small lonely girl crossed his mind and he shook his head, "no," he repeated in a more quiet tone, “please, let us try to figure those problems on our own for now,” he pleaded.

“Shepard,” Sonars almost hissed, “how can I agree to that? While I have an educated guess on how your implants function, this guess is nothing but a hypothesis. It will take me weeks, or even months to make sense of the readings. What if something bad happens to you in the mean time? How will I be able to live with myself, knowing it happened because I agreed to withhold information from HQ?”

"There are not many medics in the Alliance familiar enough with my situation either,” Shepard sighed, “In fact, there is only one person who knows everything about my implants," he explained, "she was the one leading the Lazarus project and she was the one who helped put me together after the war too."

"You mean Miranda Lawson," Sonars noded, "do you know  where is she now?" she inquired.

"Illium?" Shepard shrugged his shoulders. Miranda had never stayed in one place for long after the war. She explained that previously she was traveling around the galaxy either for business, or because she was hiding. Now she wanted to travel a little to simply enjoy places she had visited, but never had time to appreciate. "At least she was there the last time we talked. I'll call Miranda. Or talk to Liara, she will have no problems tracking her down if the first option fails. I just need you to trust me for a little while, ok?"

Sonars looked at the commander sceptically, but then sighed in what Shepard could only interpret as defeat. "Understood," she nodded.

***

Jana had to concentrate to prevent her hands from shaking, as she navigated the white Kodiak through the belt of asteroids. The closer she was getting to the destination, the bigger the asteroids were, situated closer to each-other, so it required a substantial amount of skill to maneuver between them. The final dodge to the left revealed a large platform in a body of a particularly large rock formation, big enough to hide not only a small shuttle, but a ship the size of an Alliance frigate.

Jana reached for the control panel, ready to receive any incoming messages from the base, when the entire interior of the shuttle exploded into a bright blue light, coming in weaves from somewhere behind the pilot seat. Every single light on the panel turned on, some of the panels exploded in a cascade of bright sparks and the Kodiak started to turn on its own accord, setting its course towards the platform ahead.

“Shit!” Jana swore, jumping up from the chair and rushing into the adjacent section of the shuttle.

Here, on one of the metal benches, tied-up with several safety belts, was laying subject 07. Its entire skin was glowing bright blue and the irises of its eyes shone like two little flashlights, so intense, that it was almost impossible to look at them without wincing.

There was an incoming message Jana heard echoing from the side of the pilot cabin. It was difficult to understand what the person on the other side was saying, as the static filled the communication. The few words Jana was able to distinguish gave her a vivid idea about the situation.

She glanced at the screen shield of the Kodiak, and saw the weave of blue light enveloping not only the interior of the shuttle, but spreading around it for at least thirty meters in each direction.

Jana swore yet again and reached quickly for her pocket, extracting a small box of medication she confiscated from Bennett. She opened the box and took one of the hypos hidden in it, before grabbing the subject by its forearm and injecting the content of the hypo into its shoulder. The thing convulsed a little, before going completely still, its eyes closing, the blue glow dissipating.

“Repeat, repeat, you’re on a collision course with base eleven, identify itself, or we will be forced to take you down,” came a male voice from the intercom.

Jana groaned turning on her hill and returning to the pilot seat, “stand down,” she said, not even trying to hide annoyance from her voice, “I have the daddy’s lost girl on board.”

The voice on the other side went silent for a second, “aye-aye, ma'am,” it replied, “you’re clear to dock. _CSV Scarlet Titan_ will be ready to depart home in an hour.”

Jana reached for the console to disconnect the link and noticed something off in the communication log. There were three recent entries correlating with the time signals from the base were received. Two of them she recognized to be from the base, but the extra one didn’t have any recognizable signature indicating who send it and to whom. The only thing Jana was capable of seeing, that it was some sort of radio signal, definitely sent from her shuttle, at exactly the time the subject 07 became active.

Jana felt a little shiver going down her spine. She reached for the communication panel again, activating the link with the base. “We were compromised,” she announced to the comm, “prepare the _Scarlet Titan_ in ten minutes, we are living immediately,” she ordered.

There was another pause on the other side, “roger that, ma’am,” the dispatcher replied after a moment, before the link was disconnected again.

Jana turned her head to look at the unconscious body of the subject, eyeing it with suspicion, “you’re a priceless brat, aren’t you?” she asked quietly.

 


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by [Kunari801](../../../../users/Kunari801)

Ann woke up in the middle of the night breathing heavily. She hardly remembered her dream, but the lingering memory of darkness and cold were vivid in her mind. She glanced at the clock standing on the nightstand next to the bed and sighed, realizing that it was barely three in the morning. She rubbed her eyes, tugging the ran-away blanket over her shoulders, determined to go back to sleep, but her stomach groaned, reminding her about the skipped dinner. She sighed and stood up from her bed, heading downstairs into the kitchen.

The light coming from the refrigerator almost blinded her when she opened the door and it took her a few moments to adjust. When she finally was able to look over the food she had stored there, the hunger was gone, like she’d never felt it in the first place. Still, Ann decided to have one cup of yogurt in case it was going to return and wake her up again. She started to open the cup, letting the fridge door close on its own accord. A moment later, she found herself standing in the middle of her small, dark kitchen with a half-opened yogurt in hands.

_Cold, darkness, war. The time itself is coming to an end._

Ann gasped dropping the yogurt. It hit the hard parqueted floor with a soft thud and Ann felt the cold substance splash over her right foot. She ignored it, rushing towards a switch on the wall, turning the kitchen lights on. Then she moved to the living room, repeating the action with the lights there, then the study, until every light, every lamp in her apartment was lit.

"It can't be," Ann breathed heavily, resting her back against the wall and trying to calm herself down, "unless," she said with a gasp.

She hurried towards the exit from the apartment, grabbing a long coat from the closet near the door, throwing it hastily over the pajamas suit and leaving her apartment, not even wasting any time with footwear.

There were lights in the apartment's entry, but the street behind the windows was dark, as the Citadel residential zones artificially changed the lights during the day and night cycle. Ann shivered thinking about going outside in this late hour, thankful that the garage she used was in the same building and she didn’t need to go out to retrieve her skycar, only to take an elevator to the top floor.

Her destination wasn't far and the streets were almost clear during the middle of the night, she even allowed herself to break several laws by running a red light. The ticket arrived almost immediately, printing itself from one of the panels on the left side of the driver’s seat. The bill itself was going to be paid off from the extranet and she didn’t really need the physical ticket, she simply used the piece of paper to wipe the yogurt from her foot. It didn’t do the job well, but was better than nothing.

The building of the laboratory stood separately from any other buildings around it. It wasn't the same lab her and her father used to own, that lab had been destroyed when the Crucible fired. This lab was smaller, lacked the appropriate equipment, but Ann was happy that she got at least something, a place where she could continue to work.

Like the equipment, most of the artifacts were lost in the explosion, but thankfully, Ann was capable of retrieving the most important one.

The Leviathan sphere was kept behind the protective screen in a small building of the new lab. Most of the time, Ann didn't bother dropping barriers around it, as the Leviathans long stopped using the orbs to get into people's minds. Ann knew that they still continued to watch over the world through them, so she kept a few terminals connected to the extranet around the orb, or sometimes, was living her projects hanging on the wall in front of it. She knew that it was silly, but couldn't help it, intending to find ways of reopening communications with the creatures of the deep.

The barrier wasn't active when Ann entered the building. She hurried to turn every light on, before moving into the section of the room where the orb was. Ann gasped again seeing the orb glowing brightly blue, a white mist rising from it's surface.

_Cold, darkness, war. The time itself is coming to an end._

"No, stop!" Ann ordered, shaking her head. The distant voice inside her head disappeared momentarily. "Sorry, I need to lock you for some time," she apologized, before reaching for the switch and dropping the protective barrier around the orb.

Ann took another deep breath. She needed to figure out what to do, but she couldn't do it herself. She needed to contact someone who knew enough about the Leviathans, someone who could help her to figure it out.

Ann moved towards one of the terminals next to the orb, "come on, please," she whispered, "let me still have your email address."

Thankfully, the address was still there, saved among hundreds of other addresses she or her father had ever written to. She sighed in relief and started to compose a letter.

***

Shepard didn't expect Tuchanka to look very different from any other the time he seen it, but when the _Normandy_ approached Urdnot, he realized that he was wrong again.

The center of the city, which previously reminded him of nothing more than a pile of rubbles, was now a large-scale construction site. None of the buildings were finished yet, but there were at least three that had a distinguishable shape and it was easy to imagine how they were going to look in the future.

The biggest of them, and the only one which was closer to being ready, was shaped like a pyramid, built in layers. From a distance it looked almost smooth, except for three large staircases leading from the top of the construction to a rather large terrace at the pyramid's foot.

The docking area was situated to the North of the city center. It was a new large platform constructed from a mix of metal and brick, produced out of local rock, rich on ochre which was giving it a distinguishable yellow color. More than a dozen support beams were raising above the docks, indicating that the construction was supposed to have a roof, but for now the docks stood in open air. It was also large, capable of supporting several ships. Apparently, krogan planned on either obtaining more space ships for themselves or building more diplomatic relationships in the future.

When the _Normandy_ approached the bay, Shepard saw that they weren't the only visitors on Tuchanka.

"That is definitely a turian frigate," Joker commented looking over the other ship, "what are they doing here?"

Shepard looked around the docking area, noticing krogan guards patrolling the perimeter. None of them seemed particularly irritated by the turian ship, or at least Shepard couldn't see any of the krogan actively trying to destroy it, which for krogan seemed like a generous demonstration of piece. The ship itself was unmarked, it was impossible to see the name anywhere on it's surface and Shepard didn't have a clue of who arrived on it and what were their intentions.

"Maybe they are finally trying to build a peaceful relationship?" Shepard said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Or maybe the krogans stole it, killing every turian on board," Joker proposed.

"Optimistic as ever, aren’t you?" Shepard shook his head, before turning to EDI, "would you accompany me to the surface?" he asked.

"Of course, Shepard," EDI replied.

***

Shepard tried to suppress a grin as he saw Kaidan gearing up into the familiar set of blue armor. He almost forgot how the black undersuit complimented every detail of Kaidan’s body and was forced to look away to prevent himself from staring at his husband's ass, even if he had every right to do it. He simply considered it unprofessional while the two of them were surrounded by several other members of the crew. Instead he focused on equipping his own armor.

Shepard extracted the chestplate from the locker. He looked over it's black and gray surface, moved his finger over the white letters of the N7 logotype feeling a sudden sting of nostalgia, as it was the first time he was going to wear it since returning to duty. The set was absolutely new, without a single scratch or dent, but it was an exact copy of the armor destroyed in the Citadel explosion.

Shepard smiled to himself, starting to attach the parts of the armor to the undersuit. It didn't take long, because even after a year without practice, he was sure he could do it even with his eyes closed. Finally, after every part of the armor was on its place, Shepard pushed a pressurisation button on the buckle of the armor's belt. It hissed, pressing itself to Shepard’s body.

There was a sudden discomfort Shepard felt, as the plates became too tight around his hips and stomach. Then the armor set hissed again, depressurizing.

Every conversation among the landing party stopped and a dead silence hung in the locker room. Shepard turned around and noticed almost every member of his crew present in the locker room looking anywhere but at him.

"Um, James," Shepard called, trying to ignore the heat rising over his cheeks, "did you change anything in the settings?" he asked.

Vega coughed, still refusing to meet Shepard's eyes, "well, I just uploaded the parameters from last year," he said.

Kaidan, who by that time had finished with his armor, walked behind Shepard, activating his omni-tool, “I’ll get it,” he said with a soft chuckle and started to adjust the settings. In a short moment the commander felt his armor pressurizing again. This time it settled around his body in an exact fit.

When Shepard thought he was done with the yearly amount of embarrassment, he heard EDI’s voice. "That is not surprising, considering you gained six and a half kilograms over the past year," she commented with a smile.

Shepard wished for some sort of undiscovered anomaly to appear and swallow him whole. It didn’t happen. Instead, he heard a quiet chuckle from behind his back which he recognized as Kaidan’s. Neith's face reddened as she continued to pointedly stare at her gauntleted hands, biting her lower lip. Vega covered his mouth with a fist, finding something surprisingly fascinating on the ceiling to look at, while Garrus and Liara suddenly decided to check their weapons one more time. It seemed only Javik and Legion were continuing to look at the commander with almost indifferent eyes.

"No-one. Says. A. Damn. Word," Shepard said, turning around and climbing into the Kodiak.

***

Krogan still lacked the flying vehicles, but the landing area on the side of the pyramid was big enough to hold several shuttles. A turian transport shuttle was already parked on the pad, and as the ship Shepard saw on the docking bay, it lacked any markings which could indicate to whom the shuttle belonged. It meant that whoever arrived to Tuchanka on the frigate, was now also meeting with Wrex.

Cortez waited for the two krogan guards patrolling the pad to point on a specific area and signal the the Kodiak to land. He maneuvered the shuttle, descending it on the designated spot, before powering down the engine. “All clear,” he said turning to Shepard.

“Roger that,” the commander nodded in response and stood from the bench, moving to the shuttle’s airlock, gesturing his squad to follow.

When finally outside, he was greeted by both of the patrol guards, who walked towards the shuttle. They both wore similar red armor, the scales of their head shells were both green-brown, with yellow hide covering their faces. There was a difference in the set of their eyes, the width of their lips, which made it possible to distinguish one from another, but altogether the two krogans looked like brothers. Both of them carried weapons, but tucked them away at the sight of the commander.

They stopped several meters away, lowering their heads, before raising them up again and hitting themselves on the chest with their fists. Afterwards, to Shepard’s surprise, they sprung to attention and saluted.

It was a clunky act, uncoordinated, like they’d never done it and simply copied a motion seen once or twice before. Still, no matter how strange it was to see it coming from krogan, Shepard reflexes worked before his brain had time to catch up, and instead of freezing in amused shock, his hand rose to return the salute. Shepard finished the salute and started to lower his hand, ready to give an ‘at ease’ command, but by the time he finished the movement, both krogan moved from their stance, returning to their usual posture of two-and-a-half-meter  tall mountains of muscles.

"Commander Shepard," said one of them, "Leader of Urdnot informed us of your arrival."

"Then, I suppose you are here to escort me to him," Shepard nodded.

"Mrr-ghm," the second guard groaned, walking closer to Shepard and looking at the team emerging from the shuttle, "only three at a time can go to see the Leader, it's a rule," he said.

"Well, we all came to visit Wrex," Shepard crossed his arms over his chest, "what is the rest of my team is going to do meanwhile?" he asked.

The guards looked over the squad and then at each-other, shrugging their massive shoulders, before they turned back to Shepard. "Oh, they are welcome to look around the Urdnot capital,” the one who first spoke with Shepard said, “we have some interesting sights to visit. Unfortunately, there will be nothing to eat, unless they want they stomachs to bleed, but we have stores and varren fighting arenas," he added with a grin.

"Will anyone have a problem with them wandering around the city?" Shepard inquired.

The second guard stepped even closer into Shepard's personal space, scowling so every tooth in his mouth was visible and Shepard could feel his not-so-pleasant breath over his face. Even if Shepard was consciously aware, the guard meant no harm, he couldn’t deny the motion to be intimidating. Still, he stood immovable, not giving into a temptation to make a step backwards.

"Three months ago," the guard said in a long throaty groan, "I had my first newborn; there are hundreds of krogan like me. If anyone has the slightest problem with the team of the Normandy, they risk their testicles cut off and fed to pyjacks," he smirked.

"Well, that's really reassuring," Kaidan said stepping closer to Shepard.

The commander noticed the way he moved to acquire a position from which it would only take half a step to put himself in between Shepard and the krogan guard. Shepard wondered if it was a conscious decision, or Kaidan did it on a simple reflex.

The guard who was still in Shepard's personal space turned his head to the biotic. It looked like he was sniffing the other men for a moment, before his smile widened even more, "you can have two guards and a mate by your side," he said.

Shepard glanced at Kaidan smirking, on what his husband only rolled his eyes.

Both of the krogans meanwhile stepped back, giving Shepard a chance to decide who he was going to take with him.

"Garrus, Liara, Kaidan," Shepard called out, "come with me. Others are free to explore the city. Stay together at all time just in case."

***

After the closer examination of the newly-construct building, Shepard could see that it looked like one of the architectural monuments in the ancient krogan city he visited over a year ago when they cured the genophage. At the same time there were many more modern looking details, like the row of luminescent lamps under the ceiling of its chambers, or some of the walls built from metal and covered with fire-proof plastic sheets, which by all standards supposed to look absolutely out of place next to the yellow-bricked walls, but looked surprisingly well. It was astonishing to think that some krogan architects had actually planned this place to look nice.

The room where they were escorted was large and brightly lit with sunlight coming from several large windows on one of the walls. The gallery above the windows was decorated with black and red mosaic images, some of which shepard remembered seeing in the ancient city. In the middle of the room stood an oval shaped table with stone legs, a wooden top and several chairs around it, which were most likely imported from somewhere, as Tuchanka was still very low on trees.

At the head of the table sat Wrex who rested one of his elbows on the table resting his head on his fist, looking thoughtfully over a map which covered half of the table’s surface. Next to Wrex stood Bakara, who was also looking at the map, but unlike Wrex, she seemed to be more interested in whatever they were discussing, leaning over the map and pointing at different locations. On the other side of the table sat a figure dressed in a long coat whose face was hooded so it was impossible to identify the person, besides the obvious anatomy of a turian. Next to the cloaked figure stood two other turian soldiers with their hands behind their backs.

The moment the door to the room opened, Wrex raised his head to look at the new arrivals. The bored look, disappeared from his face replaced with a wide smile. "Shheparrrd!" he roared, ignoring everyone else present at the meeting, standing up a little too fast, which made his chair turn over and fall onto the stone floor with a loud thud.

"Are we interrupting anything?" Shepard inquired looking at the turian delegation. "It looks like you were in the middle of something important."

The facial expression of the leader of clan Urdnot shifted once again, as he turned his head to look at the hooded figure, this time a distrust crossed his featured and he snarled. "Yes, I suppose," he nodded and turned around to pick up his chair, murmuring something under his nose that Shepard couldn’t understand, but which sounded like cursing.

"We apologize to you," Bakara nodded to the figure, "our men are still unaware of manners considering the treatment of diplomatic delegations," she said.

“I’m all but full of manners,” Wrex protested, moving the now standing chair back to its proper place and settling back at the head of the table.

Bakara narrowed her eyes, but didn’t bother to reply, turning to Shepard instead, "as I understand you came to discuss a krogan diplomat who would be capable of representing our race in council space," she said, her voice calm, controlled, like she was used to these kind of situations, knowing Wrex’s temper it wasn’t surprising, "unfortunately our guards didn’t think how inappropriate it was to bring you here instead of the waiting area. Why don’t they escort you there now, so we can finish our current task with the turian guests. I deeply apologize for the trouble."

Shepard nodded to Bakara, “it is understandable,” he replied politely, “we will wait as long as it will be needed.”

"It won’t be necessary," the hooded figure said and Shepard recognized the voice. “I think our discussion might concern the commander and his team as well. Would it be acceptable for the guards to live this room?" he asked.

Bakara gestured to the krogan guards. They lowered their heads, hitting their chest with their fists again, before turning around and exiting the room.

The man in the long coat then turned and reached for his hood taking it off and revealing his face.

"Primarch Victus," Garrus said stepping closer to the table, saluting. It looked like the turian recognized the leader of his own race the same moment Shepard did.

"It is good to see you," Victus nodded, "now, why don't we all sit down? We have a matter of business to discuss.”

 


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by Kunari

Shepard’s eyes moved from a map on the table to the primarch, his eyebrows narrowed in contemplation. He tried to read Victus’ expression, but the turian’s facade remained calm, indecipherable, like he wasn’t even remotely concerned about the situation.

Shepard knew that it wasn’t the case, that if Victus had no interest in the topic, he wouldn’t send a delegation to Tuchanka, yet alone appear at the meeting in person. Something was wrong on a grand scale of things and no-one was in hurry to enlighten the commander.

Shepard's gaze returned to the set of maps, which covered the large portion of the table. He wondered why the krogan weren’t using more convenient holographic maps, but remembered that they still didn’t have neither space-ships, nor working satellites, which could provide them with three-dimensional imaging of the territory. Still, it wasn’t too bad, Shepard could perfectly work with what he had on hands.

One of the maps was a simple work of art, drawn by hand on a piece of leather, depicting the Urdnot capital and the surrounding areas, and as far as Shepard could tell, detailed every building and street with an exact precision. Two other maps were also hand-made, but seemed too vague and indistinct, showing only general locations of some old ruins South and West from the city. Those maps had several red X’es pinpointing locations of the main source of disturbance in the area -- Cerberus.

Shepard felt that he should’ve been surprised by the information, but considering every other instance of Cerberus activities for the past few weeks, the news about them infiltrating Tuchanka was among the lines of what Shepard had somehow anticipated.

“I’d say we strike today,” Wrex groaned, “the longer we wait, more of our,” his tone faltered for a moment, “resources, they will be able to snatch.”

“Resources?” Victus said in a tone which lingered on the verge of anger and amusement at the same time. “Maybe it’s time to stop lying in front of people who are trying to help you and be truthful about what is going on?”

Wrex’s jaw clenched as he looked at the turian in front of him. “Truthful?” he almost roared, “easy for you to demand, while you’re still hiding your intentions for being here.”

It looked like Victus was about to snap and reply Wrex in the same anger-powered manner, but the turian primarch managed to gather himself in time. “I told you why I am here," he replied, "both of our planets faced Cerberus' undercover work, both of our governments reported to the Council and the Council decided it to be beneficial for us to work together."

Wrex only shook his head. “I think we could've managed without your presence here,” he waved his hand in dismissal, giving Bakara a sided glance, which made Shepard realize whose decision it was to report to the Council.

"I honestly doubt it," Victus threw back. It was noticeable, how the entire time he tried to remain calm, but in the way his mandible twitched, muscles on his back strained, it was possible to see that even his patience wasn't endless.

Wrex, it seemed noticed the primarch's body language too. With a scowl he stood from his chair, starting to open his mouth. Every muscle in Shepard's body strained in a preparation to leap in between two arguing parties in case their actions stop to be verbal only, but he was interrupted by a fist slamming in the surface of the table.

"That's enough!" Bakara intervened, making both Wrex and Victus lean backwards freezing in place. "Look at you," she continued moving her gaze from the leader of Urdnot to the primarch, "one has been nothing but quiet about his true intentions the entire time, while the other can't live five minutes without starting an argument. Is that what we fought against the Reapers for? Is that what the war taught us?"

Shepard couldn't hold back a small smile listening to the krogan. He regretted that he didn't have her aboard the _Normandy_ the entire time, because he was sure Bakara would have been capable of uniting the races at least twice as fast as he managed to do it.

"We would all have been dead by now if we haven't put our differences behind us and stood together. There is no enemies in this room, neither anywhere among people who fought, so cut this argument," she finished with a nod, before sparing one glance to Shepard.

For a moment the entire conference room was quiet, like everyone was still trying to get over the shock and weight of Bakrara’s speech. Finally, Shepard heard a single sigh from Victus before the primarch nodded and stood activating his omni-tool.

An image appeared over the maps on the table. It was a three dimensional projection of a device the commander had never seen before, although the intricate design and the metalwork were unmistakably indicating it as reaper tech.

The device was made of two metal slides, both of which were wider at the foundation and thinner at the tip, intertwined together to make it look like a spearhead. It stood on a circle base with five metal legs, surrounding the sphere in a shape of a star.

"What is it?" Shepard heard Kaidan speaking in awe from his side. In attempt to take a better look at the holo projection, he moved closer to the table and unintentionally, or maybe on purpose, stepped into Shepard's personal space.

"It's called the Arca Monolith," Victus replied. It was the first time Shepard heard the name, but the sound of it almost made the commander shiver. He found himself fighting the urge to make half a step to his right and lean into Kaidan for support.

"Well, that sounds ominous," Garrus nodded not taking his eyes off the image.

"The artifact has been found approximately twenty five Palaven years ago," Victus continued, "it had strong indoctrinating properties, turning anyone who came into contact with it into its mindless servants. After realizing what we faced with, the artifact has been destroyed."

"And how exactly is it connected to Cerberus abducting my people?" Wrex asked and winced the moment the words escaped him.

Shephard's mind worked fast, perhaps because he had access to more information on the topic. Since Rannoch, Shepard knew about Cerberus abducting aliens to replenish their troops and it was naive to think that they were only sticking to quarians. Cerberus mission on Tuchanka was to add the brutal force of krogan soldiers for their army, and if Shepard's instincts were still at their prime, he was ready to bet Palaven was facing the same problem. It was also easy to conclude that Cerberus either found a similar artifact and was using it to control their troops, or the Arca Monolith wasn't destroyed after all.

If Victus noticed Wrex's slip, he didn't show it, instead he sighed and continued his explanation: "somehow Cerberus got a hold on the leftovers of the Monolith. Our study indicated that after destruction, it was no longer active, but it is possible they managed to reactivate it somehow. Now they are using it to control people they abduct all over the Galaxy."

"Cerberus had always had ways, how are you so sure they got a hold on this artifact?" Garrus asked.

Victus turned to one of his guards and nodded at him. The guard stepped forward and reached for a simple black bag he was carrying across his shoulder, pulling a small scorched piece of metal out, placing it on the table in front of everyone.

On the closer inspection, the piece reminded of a bracelet made of white metal. It had distinguishable scorch markings on its sides, like someone emptied an ammo clip into the thing. Shepard also couldn't shake off a feeling that he’d seen it somewhere before.

"This bracelet was made of the Arca Monolith, it has the exact same energy signature, as the leftover scraps we still have on Palaven," Victus explained, "it is inactive and absolutely safe right now, but there are more of them and in Cerberus hands they are the weapon which turns our allies against us."

"And you couldn't keep a better eye on your reaper artifact leftovers?" Wrex groaned shaking his head.

"That is where the strange part begins," the primarch sighed, "the site has been closed for twenty five years. No one came in or out during that time. We are sure about it, because no matter how good you're at getting inside places undetected, with enough determination it possible to find at least some traces of trespassing. It is almost as they were ghosts who could pass through walls."

"Or the pieces of the artifact were obtained well before the place was locked down," Liara, who was silent until this moment, said, "I'm sorry, it's just the story sounds familiar to me for some reasons, I might have seen something about it among my files," she added when several pairs of eyes turned to her.

Victus spared Liara a distrustful look, but then shook his head, "that should have been a well kept secret of my planet," he said.

"I am aware of it," Liara smiled gently.

"Liara, will you be able to go through your sources after the meeting?" Shepard asked.

"I can send Javik to do it right now," she nodded activating her omni-too and typing a quick message to her friend.

Shepard gave the asari a nod and turned back to look at the bracelet. "You said that you took it from one of the Cerberus agents?" He asked.

"Yes," Victus replied, "the artifact doesn't turn people into mindless husks, like the Dragon Teeth, but leaves their personalities intact, making them do anything the wearer of the bracelet instructs, which makes the victims perfect infiltrators. It took us a while to even realize that something was amiss, but eventually we set in motion a counter attack. Hundreds of turians were abducted by that point, but we managed to stop it in the end."

Shepard reached towards the bracelet taking it into his hand, trying desperately to remember where he had seen it before, until finally he recollected it perfectly clear.

"According to the analysis of the artifact scraps, we suspect there to be five of those bracelets," Victus continued, "one was destroyed on Palaven," he said gesturing towards the piece of metal in Shepard's hands, "one is currently on Tuchanka, seeming how they continue indoctrinating practices here. We don't know anything about other three."

"Two of those are currently in the possession of a woman named Jana," Shepard sighed, throwing the bracelet back on the table, "she used to be the Illusive Man’s right hand and we suspect her to be the leader of Cerberus now, which leaves us only with one bracelet missing from the picture."

"Do you know about her current location, Commander?" Victus asked.

Shepard turned his gaze down, remembering his encounter with Jana, the anger and shame spiking inside him. "She got away," he confessed, clenching his fists.

"We'll get her, don't worry," Kaidan said, giving the commander a reassuring nod.

Their eyes met for a moment and Shepard saw determination in Kaidan's eyes, a look which made him believe the statement to be true. He nodded back to his husband and turned to look back over the group of people present in the conference room, "anything else you have to add?" he asked.

Victus shook his head indicating he had no further information. Everyone remained silent untill Wrex stood up from his chair once again, placing both of his hands on the table surface. The leader of Urdnot moved his gaze from Victus and Shepard to Bakara, who nodded in encouragement.

"Seemingly as we all share some information," he started visibly not comfortable with talking, "there is something else that might be of interest to you. There are ruins west to the city, I think you're all familiar with," he said pointing at one of the red X'es on the map, where Shepard knew to be the Kalros' feeding grounds, "there is something in there, something that interests them."

Shepard looked over the map, scratching his chin with gauntleted fingers, pondering what Cerberus would need in the ancient krogan city. Seeing what they were capable previously, he wouldn't be surprised to find out they finally managed to control thresher maws, which would only add into everyone's plate. They also could have been after something more trivial, like a corpse of a dead reaper, but that would be strange, considering there were plenty of dead reapers left all over the Galaxy, any of which easier to acquire.

"Were any of your scouts able to find out what they were doing there?" Kaidan asked.

"The one who returned didn't report anything, besides Cerberus doing some extensive digging," Wrex shook his head, "the one who went in closer, didn't return."

"But there is something else, Commander," Bakara joined in, "I'm not sure if I can explain, but there are things, strange things started to happen since Cerberus arrived."

"What do you mean?" Shepard inquired raising an eyebrow.

"You better speak with the Shaman, he can explain everything better than I can."

***

The Shaman's residence was in a building adjacent to the central pyramid. On the way down from orbit, the city buildings looked so tightly packed, as if they were almost touching, while in reality it was at least fifteen minutes walk down the main city square.

The last time Shepard was outdoors on Tuchanka without a helmet, he experienced a lot of difficulties breathing the polluted air, plus the outdoor temperature of over forty degrees Celsius wasn't to his liking either.

Now the air outside was cleaner. It was still far away from being comfortable to breathe, but now it was more bearable. The temperature was also pleasant, but Shepard suspected it was more due to the late winter or early spring season on the planet and not because of the improving ecosystem. Still, Shepard had no doubt that one day Tuchanka would return to its former glory, maybe not in a year or two, but eventually it would happen.

"Shepard!" He heard someone calling his name in a distance, a female voice, unfamiliar, but not threatening, "stop picking rocks from the ground, they aren't food!"

Curious he turned toward the voice and saw a female krogan and what Shepard assumed to be a krogan equivalent of a toddler. The kid couldn't be older than a year, but he already was at least twice the size of any one year old Shepard had ever seen. Little krogan-Shepard tried to pull out from his mother's grasp and reach to the ground to pick more rocks, but his mother simply grabbed him by the waist and threw over her shoulder, proceeding on her way to wherever she was going to. The baby-krogan continued to kick even then, trying to get away.

"I think he's got some character traits from his namesake," Shepard heard Kaidan chuckle besides him and felt heat creeping up his neck and ears. "I mean, really? I thought they were kidding about naming children after you," he added with an amused grin.

"Oh, there were at least two dozens Shepards born last year, and that are only the ones I'm aware of," Bakara said, walking their little team towards the temple building.

"Really, I heard there were some on Palaven as well," Garrus joined in, with a short amused laugh of his own.

"You know, it's not as humbling as you think it is," Shepard shook his head, "actually, it's mostly awkward," he admitted.

"Well, if it makes you feel better, there weren't many Shepards born on Tessia," Liara said. Her voice was mostly serious, but when Shepard looked her in the eyes, he couldn't miss a note of mischief in them.

"A thank you card would've sufficed," he shook his head, before looking around.

Among the krogan on the main square alone he could see almost as many children as adults. The kids were all around the place, starting from toddlers and ending with newborns, still carried secure in their mothers embraces. "There is a lot of children, though," he said, "are you afraid that at this rate you may suffer from repopulation again?" He asked addressing to Bakara.

Shepard couldn't see half of her face under traditional krogan dress, but something in her eyes made him think that she was smiling. "No, as unbelievable as it is, we are keeping the population under control. Right now, when our ranks are so few after the genophage and the war, we are allowing each female to have only two children. In time, if we feel that there are two many of us, we will limit it to one."

"Sound surprisingly like how the quarian used to control population back when they were still in the Migrant Fleet," Garrus pointed out.

"Yes," Bakara agreed, "I borrowed the idea from the quarians. It seemed a good one."

"Was anyone complaining about the limits?" Shepard asked.

"Not really," Bakara shook her head, "the females supported the idea of it being the best course of action."

"And what about your males?" Shepard inquired.

Bakara laughed, a sound deep and pleasant, "well, it's a good thing they don't really have a word in the matter," she said.

Shepard hummed, scratching the back of his nape, not sure if to be pleased with the decision as it really was a great way to secure prosperity for a race as short tempered as krogan, or give a way to the feeling of solidarity with krogan men.

"It is unbelievable, actually," Bakara continued, "I did expect our males to protest this measure, there were many who did, but on the grand scale, twice as many decided to search of an actual bondmate to start a family. It has been almost three centuries since our people turned away from that practice. Although, it also could have happened because for many males it was the only way to secure any breeding at all, as most of the females turned to Wrex when the Genophage was cured."

"Yeah, I heard about that," Shepard nodded with a chuckle, "although I had the impression you and Wrex were a bit closer. Wouldn't you be, I don't know, a little jealous of the attention he is getting?"

Bakara laughed yet again and Shepard realized that he really liked the sound of it, especially considering her health and mental state at the time he met her. It was nice seeing her do so well. "Well, Shepard," she said, "I admit, that we're in fact as close as you thought. Still, I was raised with different cultural values, I saw it as a good opportunity to spread, so to speak, more intellectually heavy genes among our people. So as long as none of the other females had plans on keeping him, I didn't see a threat in it."

"And what about you?" Shepard asked, "last time I talked to Wrex he said you were expecting."

Bakara nodded before letting out a sigh. "I've got one girl," she said, "unfortunately, I find it difficult to find time to raise her on my own with all of the work I do here. I met an old friend of mine, who belonged to the same female clan I was a part of, before joining Urdnot, she takes care of her. Wrex and I try to spend as much time with them as we can, but it doesn't happen as often as I would like," she explained. "Anyway, we are here," she added pointing at the entrance in front of them.

Similar to the main hall, the building before them was enormous in size, planned to be shaped like a pyramid. Its top hadn’t been constructed yet, so it looked like someone cut it off, but even now Shepard could imagine how glorious it was going to be when finished. The entryway was large, framed with a portico made in a style which vaguely resembled ancient roman. There were two niches for statues on either side of the entryway, still empty, but according to the size of the niches, statues intended for them were going to be as large as the ones he had seen in the old krogan city. The entryway led to an aisle with a raw of trapezoid columns surrounding it, which was opening a way into a large circular cell resembling an arena. Shepard suspected, that even unfinished the temple was already starting to host religious ceremonies, most of them consistent of enraged battles.

On the way to the living quarters, their group passed a team of workers. Similar to the central structure, they were covering some of the walls of the building with metal and plastic sheeting. The leader of the workers stood nearby, next to a folding metal table covered in plans. Even if he wasn’t dressed in a battle armor, his commanding tone and the untranslatable insults he was barking at the workers, made him look more like a military CO.

The hallway leading to the living quarters was also unfinished. Its walls were bare, unworked, the illumination in it was provided by a row of lamps hanging from the ceiling, but it was noticeable that they were temporary, soon to be replaced by the luminescent ones as in the city hall building.

The Shaman’s room was situated on the far end of the corridor. The doorway was designed to have an actual working door, but it wasn’t yet installed. Instead, the entrance to the room was covered with leather scraps, which was making it look more like a cave.

“Shaman,” Bakara called through the veil of leather scraps, “Commander Shepard has come to talk to you.”

A quiet commotion was heard from the other side and a deep grounding voice, muffled a little by the entryway covers, answered Bakara’s call. “You may enter,” the Shaman replied.

Bakara nodded to the commander’s team and entered the room, disappearing behind the yellow-brown covers.

Shepard followed her inside, moving the leather to the side to make a way. Upon entering the quarters, he found himself in a room rather small in comparison to any other accommodations he’d seen in the city so far. It was no bigger than his own private quarters back on the _Normandy_. Most of the furniture in the room was made of stone and metal, although there was a single wooden table, occupying one of the corners. Further in, the space was divided with a screen, beyond which he couldn't see, but suspected it lead to the living part of the room. On the opposite corner from the table stood an altar, which was nothing more but a large stone tablet on a pedestal. The tablet was decorated with intricate patterns forming an image of a thresher maw and some text the commander couldn't read. Next to the altar on a small pillow sat the Shaman, holding his legs pressed to his chest, his chin on own knees.

It was the second time Shepard had met the Shaman, and it was surprising to see how old the krogan was. His yellow-green skin and even his carapace were covered with deep wrinkles, Shepard had never seen on any other krogan. Looking at him, it was easy to believe the guy lived for almost a millenium. Still, there was nothing in his posture indicating the Shaman to be weak, and Shepard knew that if it was needed, he could easily put up a fight.

The moment Shepard entered the room, the old krogan’s eyes moved on him. There was depth in the Shaman’s gaze, wisdom, next to which Shepard was starting to feel like a naive child who knew nothing about the world, but there was fierceness and anger too.

“Ah, Shepard, I’m glad you came,” the Shaman said, nodding and standing up from his pillow in one strong, graceful move. Then he looked over the party and around his own room, “I suppose I require to offer you a seat, seeming as I have my own place now,” he said a little irritated, “I don’t have anything to sit on, though,” he added with a shake of his head and a shrug.

“You don’t require anything,” Shepard replied, “besides, I think we can stand just fine.”

The shaman nodded again and stepped closer to the commander, leaning into his space and taking a deep inhale, sniffing the air. “So, did you hear the call of the creatures of the deep too,” he asked after a brief pause, “is that why you came here?”

“Umm, honestly, I came because the Council send me to find a new diplomat, but we got a little sidetracked by Cerberus,” Shepard replied. “And, wait, creatures of the deep? Do you mean Leviathan?”

The Shaman stepped back, shaking his head. Then he laughed and nodded, walking around the commander moving towards the table where he picked a data-pad, activating it and scrolling through something which looked like an extranet page. “The Leviathans, you call them, yes,” he said, “I looked them up after,” he paused, scratching own cheek, “after I encountered the effects.”

Shepard raised an eyebrow, “you encountered the effects?” he asked, “what effects?”

The Shamen shrugged throwing the pad back to the table, “it started a few months ago, prior to the Cerberus arrival,” he started to explain, “at first they were dreams, of a place dark and cold. Not the usual variation of bloodthirsty battles, but I didn’t pay attention to them. A few weeks back, when we first encountered indoctrinated krogan on Tuchanka, the nightmares became more,” he paused taking a deep breath, “I started to hear voices, indistinguishable at first, but becoming clearer later. A warning, a plea for help, I still don’t know what they mean.”

“Do you think it may be connected to Cerberus somehow?” Shepard asked

Shaman nodded, “it might be, it might not,” he said, “the only thing I’m sure of is that started when Cerberus appeared. I think there might be something in those ruins, something they are after besides our people.”

“It is possible that there is one of the Leviathan spheres hidden somewhere in the ruins,” Liara proposed, "I can also see how Cerberus might be interested in obtaining one."

“Most of the spheres are kept back on Earth now, under the Alliance protection,” Shepard nodded, “some were sent to Palaven and Thessia. But we still don’t know how many of the spheres were out there, it is possible one of them is hidden in the ruins,” he agreed.

"Or it can be Cerberus trying to indoctrinate you," Kaidan suggested.

"Nah," the Shaman groaned, "I heard the other voices too, sweet and comforting, promising everything you can dream about. I laughed at that and went into a blood rage for a few hours. Slept it off and woke up as good as new, so you don't need to worry."

Shepard saw Kaidan and Liara exchanging worried looks, before turning to Bakara for any clue. She only shrugged, unsure.

"You funny little things," the Shaman laughed, "I told you what I saw, it's your decision what to do. If you think it's safer to lock me up," he paused, stepping even closer to the group, grinning wide, "I'd like to see you try."

Shepard stood silent for a moment. It was possible that the Shaman was being indoctrinated and leading them into a trap. It was also possible he was not and was giving them a clue to solve the puzzle Cerberus created. "I will think about it," Shepard nodded in the end.

He almost opened his mouth to bid goodbye before leaving, but the Shaman leaned closer to the commander like he was trying to sniff him again, “before you go,” he groaned quietly, “someone, or something was trying to reach you, I can smell it on you, Commander. Something which are not the creatures of the deep and not the reapers. I think you know more about it than I do. Have you seen some visions lately, hallucinations, dreams perhaps?”

Shepard felt a shiver running down his back, a thin layer of perspiration gathered on the lower region of his spine, “I’m not sure about it,” he didn’t exactly lie, he wasn’t sure about the dreams he saw. Perhaps it was something he could ponder when he had free time alongside with questioning how could the Shaman know anything about it.

His eyes met with Kaidan’s and he saw a disapproving note in his husband’s gaze, like he wasn’t quite believing Shepard. Perhaps he didn’t, because not once he woke up to Shepard having nightmares and the amount of them increased recently. Still, even if he didn’t believe him, he didn’t start to press the issue further. At least not while they were in the presence of other people.

The Shaman looked at Shepard with the same unbelieving stare, and like Kaidan he didn’t say anything, only nodded. “Then, perhaps, you should go and relax before tomorrow,” he said and turned around moving back towards the altar he was sitting next to when they arrived.

Shepard thanked the Shaman and turned to leave, but before he was out of the door, the entire room became darker. Cold air swept over his skin and the world around him started to spin.

The next moment Shepard found himself in a place where no light could reach. There was nothing around him but darkness and his entire body froze in cold and fear. A distant voice sounded in his head, deep and cold like a place he was at, familiar nonetheless.

_Cold, darkness, war. The time itself is coming to an end._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VERY important few notes.  
> First of all, I want to thank every one who waited patiently for the continuation of the story. It happened that I had a period of life when I either didn't have time to write, or didn't have inspiration. It happened that for the last several weeks I've been writing every free moment, and almost finished the novel (at least the raw draft). The upcoming story, right after the part on Tuchanka, were and still are very challenging to write, because a lot of puzzle pieces are coming together and I plan on making it as close to perfect as I can. Plus, there will be intergalactic politics and many Shepard/Kaidan deep emotional moments, as well as some development for side characters involved, so the last chapters are very difficult to compose in a way that the story will continue to have its flow.  
> Speaking about the flow of the story, it took me a long time to write it and in that time my style and skill changed. There are some minor points in the beginning of the novel I want to fix or change and I will tell you about them later. One thing I want to tell for sure, is that both of the sex scenes will have to go (please don't throw rotten tomatoes, let me explain). Those scenes, while was entertaining to write, and perhaps to read, bring nothing to the plot and only occupy space. I don't like scenes that do not affect the story. Instead I will have a sex scene in the end, before the final mission (as it is traditional for the Mass Effect series), but one that will be really meaningful and reflect on characters and their relationship.  
> Another point that I think about fixing is the reason why Kaidan couldn't join Shepard in the beginning. Originally, I planned make Shepard a little jealous of having Kaidan's ex on board of the ship, but I simply can't find a way to add it to the story, so it would play a role in the overall plot. Besides, there will be enough drama in the last several chapters without it. Right now the fact that Kaidan couldn't join in at the beginning and only was allowed to do so closer to the middle is a plot-hole. It stares at me and laughs and I don't like it. I have several ideas, but I also will tell about them later.  
> Finally, I'm thinking about merging a few shorter chapters at the beginning, which will affect nothing, but the chapters' count. I'm telling you this now, because if you see that instead of 32 chapters today, there will be 29 or 28 tomorrow, don't think that I deleted or lost some. It is also the reason I didn't put the total number of chapter in the story describtion (48 without merging).  
> It is all for now, thank you again for your attention and for being here, reading this story. It means a lot to me =)


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta'ed by Kunari

Shepard wasn’t sure how long he spend in the place where no light could reach, enveloped in darkness and cold. It seemed to sip through his skin and flesh right into his bones, untill every other sensation became nonexistent. There were no time, no space and every sound was muffled, as if there was a padded blanket wrapped around his head.

As suddenly as he was pulled into that unbreachable realm of cold nothingness, the world around him started to make sense again. Shepard blinked finding himself back in the krogan temple, standing in the Shaman’s room.

“Shepard?” he heard Kaidan speaking to him, the intonation indicating that he needed to repeat the name a few times to get the commander’s attention, “are you ok?”

Shepard shook his head, trying to shake away the small thread of the vision clinging to him like they didn’t want to let go. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he nodded.

“You zoned out,” Kaidan explained frowning in concern.

Shepard nodded, “I saw it,” he whispered, “the Leviathans, they were trying to reach me.”

“What... what did they tell you?” Liara asked, her own voice concerned but also curious.

Shepard tried to remember, to recollect the voice, but he found himself unable to do it, even if the vision he had a moment earlier was as vivid as the real world around him. “I,” he said shaking his head, “I don’t know.”

The Shaman looked over the commander and sighed. “Perhaps it’s a sign that you are suppose to find whatever Cerberus is after before they do,” he proposed.

Shepard gave the old krogan an unsure nod, “Yeah,” he said, “I’ll do that.”

***

Some time later, Shepard found himself outside the temple walking down the main town square along with Kaidan. The joint coalition of krogan, turian, and now the Alliance forces, against Cerberus wasn’t scheduled until the next morning. Bakara promised to prepare the list of candidates for an ambassador position for Shepard to evaluate later that evening, so he had several hours of free time to waste. He dismissed Liara and Garrus to use that time to explore the new city and prepare for the mission.

Shepard knew that he needed those free hours to go through the evaluation forms, but found himself unable to return neither to the _Normandy_ , nor to the city hall, where quarters had been assigned for his squad. It wasn’t like he could tell he needed some fresh air to cool his mind, because fresh air was difficult to come by on Tuchanka, but after the vision he found himself in a need to be in a large open space with plenty of light. The town square, even if it still was no more than an empty paved area with some open stall market kiosks, was an ideal place for it.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Kaidan asked.

Shepard looked up at the yellowish-blue sky of the planet, watching a lonely gray cloud moving over it, “yeah,” he replied after a moment, “yeah, I do, just not right now. Give me an hour or so to clear my mind, ok?” he asked.

“Sure,” Kaidan noded, “you want to meet up back at the quarters?”

“No,” Shepard replied without giving it any thought. He wasn’t sure when, but at some point the distinguishable line between ‘personal time’ and ‘time with Kaidan’ was erased without a trace. He found himself so comfortable in the other man’s presence that he no longer considered it intruding. “I mean, unless you need something to do and want to leave,” he added.

Kaidan took Shepard by the hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, smiling in one of his special ways he reserved for Shepard only. The smile was making Kaidan look younger and more handsome, and it had never failed to melt Shepard’s heart no matter how stressed or upset he was. He returned the smile, even if he thought his own looked more like an idiotic grin, and leaned in to kiss his husband.

The moment was interrupted, however, as a large gray shadow emerged from the corner of one of the market kiosks. It moved toward the two of them with inhuman speed ready to leap on the commander.

Kaidan tried to push Shepard out of the way, activating his biotics to strike the incoming treat. Shepard had only had time to yell “stop, don’t!” to Kaidan before he was pounced on and thrown to the ground by over three hundred kilograms of muscles, which settled on top of him, starting to swipe its enormous tongue over the commander’s face.

“Urz!” Shepard laughed, grabbing the varren by his shoulders, starting to tousle its thick hide, “I can't believe you're still here! Did you miss me?” The entire rear section of the varren started to wiggle as if he tried to reply on Shepard’s question without words. “I missed you too, buddy. Hey, let me get up now,” Sheppard said nudging the varren to move and trying to stand, wiping the varren saliva from his face with the back of his hand.

In the end he managed to stand on his own, ignoring the pain in his legs and back from the strain of the fall. He petted Urz some more, before turning to Kaidan, smiling wide.

Kaidan stood next to Shepard looking at the picture with confusion, until the meaning of the event started to finally catch up with him. He shook his head, chuckling quietly. “Wow, you really can make friends with anyone, can’t you?” he asked amused.

“Heh, I wish,” Shepard shook his head, looking down at Urz, who seemed like grinning from that perspective.

Shepard had never been too embarrassed to admit that he had a soft spot for pets and suspected that most of his friends knew it by now. Besides, having Urz on his side during his previous visit to Tuchanka had helped the commander. It easing some of the tension he managed to create, as many krogan giving him dirty looks at the time, went to ignore him after they saw Urz around. He didn’t know it for sure, but heard something about varren picking only worthy people to follow.

Urz meanwhile stopped his attempts to bring Shepard back to the ground and simply started to pounce around the two of them, wiggling his rear, visibly happy to see an old friend, “Umm, Kay,”  Shepard hummed thoughtfully, “you remember that our conversation from months ago, the one where we were pondering getting a dog?” he asked turning his attention back to Kaidan.

His husband raised an eyebrow, looking at Shepard in disbelief. He moved his gaze to the varren and back to Shepard again, “you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said as if addressing more himself than anyone else. "How many more strays are you planning on bringing home?" he asked crossing his hands over his chest and trying to look serious, yet Shepard could see a small glint of amusement in his eyes.

"Come on, Kaidan," Shepard insisted. He leaned over to rub the thick gray neck of the varren with both of his hands, "like you've never done it. Even as as kid?"

Kaidan shrugged, his expression softening, "I did. Once. Not as a kid tho," he said sighing and starting to turn around to continue walking, "but my parents seemed to like him, so..." he added when Shepard could no longer see his face.

***

The second briefing room was smaller than the one where Wrex held the meeting earlier, but it had everything to accommodate Shepard's current task. He sat in one of the metal chairs in front of the large holographic screen, looking through over a dozen dossiers on krogan candidates suitable for an ambassador position. Unfortunately, even if each of them was picked for remarkable communication skills, none were coming even close to what the Citadel Council would consider reasonable.

A krogan named Rutz, for example got into the list for a successful negotiation of a discount on a pack of grenades from a volus merchant. Even if it was common knowledge that volus were a difficult race to cut a good deal with, the single incident didn't give the krogan neither experience, nor knowledge about the diplomatic mechanics.

And Rutz was the one most qualified for the job in comparison to others on the list.

"Are these all the candidates that you can propose?" Shepard asked turning away from the screen and looking at Bakara who stood a little to the side.

"Unfortunately, for now," she shook her head.

"For now?" Shepard inquired, "do you mean that later you will be able to find more?"

Bakara chuckled, "I don't think Wrex is willing to wait more. Right now his mind is preoccupied with Cerberus, but when that ordeal will be done with, he'll remember about the Council."

"Can't you convince him to wait?"

Bakara shook her head, looking at the commander apologetically, "I'm afraid a lot of our current politics were proposed and executed by me. Granted, that most of the time Wrex was supporting them, but he is also getting a little overhead, starting to feel like he has almost no control over the situation. Plus, his own negotiations with the Council about new planets to expand didn't end as well as we hopped and that frustrated him. If there will be something that will go his way, he'll calm down for a century to come," she explained.

"Why can't you accept the position then?" Shepard asked. "You seem like the best candidate to me."

"Tell me you're joking, Commander," she shook her head, "if I leave Tuchanka, those idiots will get themselves into so much trouble, that no council will be able to fix it afterwards."

Bakara stepped to the holo screen, touching its surface, scrolling through the list of names with a thoughtful look. "Besides, there is one candidate I hopped you to take a closer look at. I think she will be able to do the job," she explained picking one of the profiles.

The file Bakara pulled up was one Shepard skimmed through without sparing it a second glance. It contained nothing, but a name and a very short record of accomplishments none of which was connected to diplomatic work. Her name was simply Uwosh. The file also indicated that she used to be the lead hunter of one of the female clans, before it was absorbed by Urdnot one year prior to curing the genophage, but nowhere on the file Shepard could see her current clan name mentioned. She was listed as ruthless warrior, successful leader, loyal to the krogan.

"Are you sure about it?" Shepard asked without enthusiasm.

"I can send word to escort her here, Commander," Bakara replied, "I think you need to speak to her in person to make a decision. But yes, I have every reason to believe she is your ambassador."

"I trust your judgement," Shepard replied with a nod, "can you invite her here?"

"I will send word," Bakara said.

It took no longer than ten minutes for Uwosh to arrive, which made Shepard suspect Bakara had intended to push her candidacy before she provided the list and had her ready to appear on a given command. Shepard didn't blame Bakara for that in any case, as she most likely spared him a lot of work with that little trick.

The very first impression Shepard received from Uwosh wasn't a good one. He heard the krogan arriving before he was able to see her, "for the fifth time, I'm telling you no! So get out of my way, wormling!" sounded from the other side of the closed door, the intonation annoyed and harsh.

The door opened with a kick and a female krogan appeared in the doorway, escorted by someone whom Shepard recognized immediately. His attention almost switched from Uwosh entirely, but he gathered himself the last moment, turning his eyes back to the person he was supposed to evaluate.

The other krogan was less professional than him. The moment he saw Shepard, his facial expression changed, a wide grin spread over his features, "Sheeeparrrd!" he groaned stepping towards the commander.

Uwosh's movement was fast, unexpected. She moved half a step towards the male krogan, headbutting him so hard, that he almost fell to the ground at the sheer force of the impact. "Stand down, Grunt, that is not appropriate," she roared. Grunt shook his head, trying to regain the balance. Not saying a word, he spared Uwosh a glance and, to Shepard's surprise, it was not as much of anger, but more of adoration.

The next moment Uwosh's attention was back on Shepard. She moved towards him in wide bold steps and he couldn't help but feel intimidated by her speed and determination. His hand moved on its own accord towards the side holster, but before he could touch his gun, Uwosh reached him, kneeling in front of the commander.

"It is an honor to meet you, Commander Shepard," she said looking at the ground in front of her.

"Likewise, Uwosh," Shepard replied still a little stunned by her actions.

Finally, Shepard's attention was focused on the krogan in front of him. Uwosh was taller than most other members of her species, but was slimmer too. Instead of a traditional krogan dress she was wearing a set of scarlet red armor, which complimented her almost white skin and nearly  black head carapace. She looked up at the commander with her bright yellow eyes and Shepard realized that it was the first time he had seen a face of a female krogan: the prolonged forward features looked almost elegant, if not for a rather large scar crossing her right eye. She was lucky her eye survived such a deep cut.

Shepard always considered himself to be good at picking talented soldiers the moment he saw them. He could tell without a second thought, that Uwosh was a capable one who’d fit in perfectly among the crew of the _Normandy_. Unfortunately, he was picking an ambassador and not a new crew member.

Uwosh nodded and stood up offering Shepard her hand. The commander accepted it, giving the hand a shake, "so, do you want to try your skills at diplomacy?" he asked a little uncertain.

She scowled, showing the commander the row of her sharp teeth, "what I want doesn't matter, as long as I will be able to help my people," she said.

Well, the lack of interest in the position was a minus, but if he picked her, she wouldn't be the first person progressing on determination alone. "And do you think you will be able to manage a position of an ambassador, spend most of the time doing nothing but talking with politicians and pushing papers?" he asked, intentionally trying to keep his intonation daring, as he needed to know how well Uwosh was capable of maintaining her temper.

The krogan smirked. "I have no idea, Commander," she said, "I wasn't even told I was a candidate prior to five hours ago."

Shepard sighed feeling a little frustrated. It wasn't like he expected anyone here to present him with a law school diploma or give him an hour-long speech about outlines of political agenda, but there were limits for ignorance even he couldn't ignore.

It appeared that Uwosh sensed his discomfort, she looked over the commander and shook her head, "I'm a hunter and a fighter, Commander," she said, "and I understand you don't really believe in my abilities, but I can tell you with a certainty, that I'm ready to do whatever it takes to help my people. If it means giving up on everything I used to be, so be it. Still, I sense that you don't wish to believe it now, so how about cutting a deal?" she asked, "you're working to stop Cerberus, I heard that much. Take me with you on your mission. In this case everyone will benefit from the situation: you'll get an extra set of firearms aimed at your enemy and a chance to further evaluate me; the Council will get a breather as Wrex will understand the need for me to go with you and will not push the issue until your mission is finished; Bakara will get extra time to find more candidates if I do not qualify, and I myself will get a chance to revenge my brothers and sisters taken from us."

Shepard nodded, seeing a good point in Uwosh's argument. It was also the moment he realized that the krogan was in fact suitable for the position. He turned to look at Bakara, smiling and she gave him an approving nod. "I think I can work with that," Shepard replied turning back to Uwosh.

"I'm thankful you gave me a chance, Commander," Uwosh replied bowing her head, "I will now need time to prepare myself for tomorrows assault, so if you excuse me," she said turning around moving towards the exit from the room, "get going, wormling," she groaned at Grunt when she reached him. She grabbed him by the collar of his armor, starting to drag him with her.

Grunt spared Shepard another glance, grinning, "I'll see you around, Shepard!" He chuckled and was dragged out of the room.

Shepard stared at the exit where the pair disappeared a moment ago with confusion. "What was that all about?" he asked.

Bakara walked to stand by his side, looking in the same direction, "young love," she replied, her own voice filled with amusement.

***

Kaidan looked over the guest quarters of the city hall with awe, "wow, I'd never thought krogan would care about comfort or aesthetics, let alone would they be so sophisticated about it," he said, "I didn't expect this place to be anything else but empty barracks with small beds," he admitted.

To tell the truth, Shepard wasn't expecting anything like it either, he was also astonished to walk into the room offered to them. The quarters were large with a lot of open space. Most of the walls were made of the same yellow brick as everything else in the city, but here the stone was polished almost to the point of being reflective.

An entire section of the West wall was an open entrance to a small terrace overlooking the main square. It wasn't a particularly spectacular view, considering the city only had three unfinished buildings and a countless amount of both construction machinery and tent-like structures further in the distance, but Shepard was sure it would be one day. A low power kinetic barrier was faintly glowing blue around the terrace, keeping the room well air conditioned.

There wasn't much furniture in the room, only the practical items, like a single round table with four chairs and  a small wardrobe. All of them were made of a mix of metal and wood, but unlike the table in the conference hall, Shepard was ready to bet they were Thessian in design, which meant they were imported from somewhere like Illium. There was one piece of furniture that looked really over the top, in the far end of the room, on an small estrade reachable by three stairs, stood a king-sized canopy bed.

Urz, who’d followed Shepard around the entire time, made himself at home by jumping on the bed the first thing, getting comfortable at the foot of the mattress.

"I'm here to please," laughed an asari who accompanied them into the room, "well, as far as convincing krogan they really needed better housing solutions if they were going to start accepting diplomats," she added nodding in the general direction of the room.

Shepard was familiar with that asari. He met her a few years back on Illium while trying to buy some weapon upgrades from her shop. The entire trip ended up with him trying to help her solve relationship problems while listening to awful krogan poems.

A year later he found her krogan boyfriend's dead body in the caves of Utukki, where he was helping the Aralakh Company to investigate missing scouts. The couple had time to grow on him and he felt sorry for the news he had to bring.

"I can imagine," Shepard nodded, "I'm glad you decided to stick around and help the krogan, Ereba" he added with a smile.

Ereba sighed, her expression becoming sadder, but peaceful at the same time, "Charr gave his life protecting me and our daughter," she said, "at first I thought I was doing it to repay the debt, but I don't owe him. He wouldn't want me think that way. Krogan are not war hungry brutes the rest of the galaxy sees them, and I want our child to see it, I want everyone else to see it."

"But don't you ever feel like an outsider here?" Kaidan asked.

Ereba shrugged, "I was getting strange looks at the beginning," she confessed, "some even tried to flirt with me, thinking I just had a thing for big men," she snickered at her own words, "but they accepted me eventually. It is my home now."

"Your intentions are noble," Shepard smiled, "they should be proud to have you."

"It takes some time to get used to their traditions," she nodded, "but I'm happy here. Anyway, I heard you had some plans for tomorrow, so you probably should rest up. Your spear clothes were delivered," she said pointing at the wardrobe, "there is a shower in the room, but there is not much clean water on Tuchanka, so it is on a two minute timer. Four if you'll go together," she added with a wink. "Your crew is in the end of this wing, in the common guest rooms. Primarch was supposed to be in the room next door, but when I showed him the accommodations, he decided to refuse," she shrugged.

"Thank you," Kaidan said, "your hospitality is really appreciated."

Ereba noded at the two of them and turned around, disappearing behind the doorway, leaving them to look around the accommodations.

They were silent for a moment. Shepard went to the wardrobe, opening it and finding two sets of neatly folded uniforms, together with two bags of prepacked necessities they kept prepared if someone else needed to enter their quarters and pick up what was needed without going through their personal things.

"Wow, it's huge," Shepard heard Kaidan say and turned his head. He found the other man standing on the estrada on the other side of the room looking down the bed, a wide grin spreading over his face, "I'm worried we can lose each-other on it at night."

Shepard chuckled, "I'm sure we will be fine," he replied with a grin of his own, "also, I entirely blame you for me having to wear armor the entire day," he added walking toward the exit door and locking it, "so now, that you’ve seen for yourself that there's nothing dangerous, why don't you come here and help me take it off. We could use the shower and then test if it's really possible to get lost on this thing," he proposed nodding at the bed.

***

The night temperatures on Tuchanka could be as extremely low, as the day temperatures were high, but the protective screen of a kinetic barrier set around the veranda terrace was keeping the temperature on an acceptable level. It was still a little too cool for Shepard's preference, but a thick wool blanket and Kaidan's embrace were keeping him comfortable.

Kaidan shifted, rubbing his nose over the skin of Shepard's neck and the commander felt a hot and still uneven breath tickling his skin in a very pleasant manner. His own hand moved past Kaidan's stomach, to his oblique and further to the small of his back where he could still feel the layer of cool sweat under his fingertips.

"The leviathans," Shepard whispered closing his eyes. He felt Kaidan tence in his arms, but the other men remained silent, allowing Shepard to continue, "when I heard them today, it felt like they were calling for me somehow," he said.

"What did they say?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard shrugged his shoulders. It was a little uncomfortable to do while he had Kaidan's head resting on one of them, but it did the trick. "I don't remember any words, just impressions," he said, "but whatever Cerberus is doing, it’s going to end badly," he paused taking a deep breath, "and I don't mean here, on Tuchanka, I mean for the galaxy."

"And that is why we're here to stop them," Kaidan encouraged.

"There is one more thing," Shepard added, rubbing the small of Kaidan's back, "the call I heard, it was like it told me I need to be there tomorrow, like there is something important they wanted me to see."

This time Kaidan sighed and rose up, towering above Shepard. The blanket slid down his bare shoulders and it could be almost distracting, if not for the stern expression of his face. He looked at Shepard with disapproval, which was almost border lining with anger, "I thought we've talked about it," he said, "it's not even about orders from the Alliance brass, it's about me and you as well."

"Kaidan," Shepard shook his head, placing his palm over Kaidan's cheek. "I understand it," he said, "I was just trying to tell you what I saw and felt."

He wasn't, not really. Deep down in his heart he was trying to find an angle to convince Kaidan to let him go, because the things he saw, the things he felt were big, scary. Somehow, the simple mission Hackett had assigned him with turned into something so much bigger, something no-one could predict.

Yet, Shepard knew how much Kaidan went through, and their most recent conversation on the matter was an indication of it. To think that he could hurt the most precious person in his life again was terrifying.

Kaidan was still hovering above Shepard, the blanket slid further down his nude body revealing the taut skin, and although the picture was tempting to look at, Shepard concentrating on watching his face. He saw Kaidan's eyes looking sideways, as if the other man was contemplating something.

"The ground assault should clear the ruins. Cerberus will have nowhere to go. We will be able to go and sweep the place afterwards, when it will be cleared," he said after a moment.

It was a sound plan, one which didn't involve Shepard risking his neck in the process, but no-one could guarantee that Cerberus wouldn't have time to get rid of useful data, or destroy artifacts the moment they understood something was going on. No-one could be sure that Cerberus wouldn't obtain the secrets, the Leviathans were so eager to share, before Shepard could.

"Nothing ever goes according to the plan, Kay," Shepard whispered with a sigh.

"You worry too much," Kaidan replied, placing his hand on Shepard's abdomen, rubbing it in slow circles. A moment later, Shepard felt it slowly moving downwards, a new weave of arousal settling in the pit of his stomach.

He groaned, watching his husband's face softening, flecks of fire sparkling up in his eyes. "Then distract me," he proposed licking his lips. His good leg found a way around Kaidan's midsection, hooking itself behind the other man's lower back and tugging, positioning Kaidan exactly where Shepard wanted him to be.

"Well, I dunno," Kaidan chuckled, his voice teasing. His hand moved to the inner thigh of Shepard's other leg, pushing it gently out of the way, "you're so stubborn most of the times. But I guess, it doesn't hurt to try," he said leaning in and covering Shepard's lips with his own.

***

Shepard woke up to the sound of growling coming from somewhere in the room, his heart beating hard in his chest and the gnawing feeling of wrongness rising in him. He blinked several times trying to assess his surroundings. It was dark and it took a moment to remember that he was still in the guest quarters at the Urdnot capital, another moment to register the warmth of Kaidan's body who snored quietly by his side.

Shepard stood from the bed, careful not to wake his husband. He picked up his pistol from the nightstand and followed the sound of the growl, which he now realized was coming from the balcony.

"What is it, Urz?" he whispered quietly, when he determined the source of the sound, "who is there?" he asked the varren, moving carefully and holding his pistol ready, trying not to think how ridiculous he must've looked with a gun while dressed in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs.

Urz stood in the small terrace leading out of the room and into the night city. His entire body was tense, rigid as if he was ready for a pounce. His head was aimed somewhere down at the city square and a quiet monotone growl was coming out of his throat on every exhale.

Shepard moved past the varren and looked down to see what irritated his friend so much. It was too dark and too far away to see the details, but he could distinguish movements at the open area before the city hall. He switched the scope on his pistol to the nightvision mode, aiming it to the street below to look closer. What he saw terrified him.

There, in a slow, silent procession walked hundreds and hundreds of krogan. More of them were exiting their tents to joining the crowd proceeding together towards the edge of the city. The krogan weren't talking to each-other, weren't looking at each-other, they simply walked, like a herd of mindless husks. Some of them were half-undressed, which meant they were sleeping before something prompted them to leave their beds and made them walk. It was impossible to tell where they were moving, but if Shepard’s intuition was right, he guessed it was the direction of the Kalros ruins.

"Damn it," he swore out loud, before returning inside the room, "Kaidan," he called out, making the still sleeping man stir, "Kaidan, wake up, we have an emergency," he said as he opened the wardrobe locker, starting to pull out the pieces of his and Kaidan's armor.

Kaidan groaned and blinked a few times, before his military training kicked in and he opened his eyes wide. At the moment's notice, he stood up from the bed and reached for the under armor suit Shepard offered him, starting to pull it on. "What's up?" he asked, his voice still groggy from the sleep.

"Remember when I said that nothing ever goes according to the plan?" Shepard asked.

"Ugh, yeah, or something like that," Kaidan replied fastening the dark-gray body tight suit.

"Well, nothing did."

 


	31. Chapter 31

The lights in the central building of Urdnot capital started to come alive one by one as the residents who weren't affected by whatever was going on with the entire city were waking up. To Shepard's disappointment, there weren't many of them and mostly it were the lights in the quarters given to his own crew and the crew of the turian delegation.

In the hallway between the rooms they encountered several krogan guards who walked aimlessly towards the exit, not paying attention to anything surrounding them, their eyes glassy, unfocused.

Next to Shepard, Urz tensed again starting to growl loudly as he watched the guards walk.

One of the guards was still in his own mind. Shepard recognized him from earlier, it was the same krogan who greeted his party on the landing pads. Unsuccessfully, he tried to wake his fellow krogans up, barking orders to stop and shaking them by their shoulders, before he eventually roared and headbutted one.

Caught flat footed, the mindless krogan wasn't prepared for a headbutt. He wavered slightly and lost his balance, falling sideways onto the stone floor of the corridor, but didn't awaken. He started to stand up again, at the same time continuing to move forward, towards the exit.

Shepard and Kaidan reached them as the conscious krogan was about to tackle his friend again, "hey, hey, easy here!" Shepard ordered.

The guard turned his head, glaring  angrily at the commander, baring his teeth, "pyjacks!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air in a gesture of disbelief, "I can't stop them!"

Kaidan walked to the still crouched krogan before Shepard even had a chance to ask, starting to scan him with his omni-tool. "I can't see anything wrong with them," he informed, "they are perfectly fine. There is high delta brain activity, which mean they are in the non-REM sleep."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, looking at the other man in confusion.

"They are sleepwalking," Kaidan explained.

"Well, if we can't just wake them, we'll have to knock them down," the krogan guard concluded and moved into the offensive against his sleeping kin. He almost gained enough momentum to lend another punch, when Shepard interjected, placing his own hand on the krogan's shoulder and pushing him away as hard as he could manage.

Shepard knew that going hand to hand with a member of a species that was almost twice as large as  he was, while weighing almost six times more was a bad idea, and the push would be as effective as trying to push a mountain out of the way, but the krogan in question didn't have any plans of going against the commander and had just enough mind to stop his movement.

"This isn't going to help," Shepard said, "first, you can't knock unconscious someone who isn't conscious in the first place, second, even if you could, there are too many of them in the city to actually do any good."

The krogan groaned, moving his gaze from Shepard to the withdrawing  guards. Finally, after a moment of contemplation, Shepard felt the krogan lean backwards, "I'm not happy with it," he said. Judging by the way his entire body was tensing up as if he was still unsure if he had to listen to the commander or not, was making it an understatement.

"What's your name?" Shepard asked to get the krogan mind away from the urges.

"Krroz," the krogan replied, accenting the 'r' in a way Shepard doubted he could even repeat.

He tried still, "All right, Kroz, I need you to go and find every single guard in the building who is still in their right mind, or anyone capable of holding a gun and gather them in the reference room," he ordered, "go now."

Krroz blinked once before nodding and turning around starting to run down the hallway in the opposite direction, before disappearing behind a corner leading to another wing.

Kaidan tore his eyes away from the readings on the omni-tool, powering the device down and stepped to the commander, "what do we do now?" he asked.

"We will go, gather all of our crew and meet up with the primarch and the rest of krogans," Shepard replied, nodding in the direction of the door at the end of the corridor, which only now opened, revealing confused, but geared up members of his squad.

***

Shepard wasn't sure what he hoped for when he ordered Krroz to gather every non-affected and capable krogan of holding a gun in the conference hall. The only thing clear to him, was that Cerberus made their move and days of planning an assault now became pointless. They needed a new plan, and needed it quick.

Still, he hoped for at least a decent sized assault team with some aerial support from the turians, but the number of people gathered in the hall was going to make a strike team less than pitiful. When he entered the hall he saw only a handful of krogan, seventeen of them if he wanted to be exact, around twenty turian soldiers and his own crew which consisted of a ground strike squadron of eight, plus twelve additional soldiers from the _Normandy_.

Three of the krogan were shorter than him, which meant they couldn't have been older than  five. One of his squad members was great for scouting missions, but lacked appropriate training for any sort of crossfire, while the other was pregnant. And while he didn't think Tali was really crippled by her pregnancy and could still fight since her fever had reduced, but any injury that were treatable for her, might be deadly for the child.

There were thousands of indoctrinated krogans under Cerberus command, and they still had no idea how many Cerberus troopers were originally posted on Tuchanka. Assaulting them with that kind of force was suicide.

All three groups sood separately in the the hall eyeing each-other as if expecting an attack at any given moment, which made the atmosphere in the room tence.

Shepard moved his eyes over the krogans until they stopped on the leader of Urdnot, who was pacing impatiently back and forward next to the table. Grunt was there too, but Bakara and Uwosh were nowhere to be seen.

"Finally!" Wrex groaned as he noticed the commander in the room, "now that you got your ass here, maybe you will be able to tell me what happened to my people?"

Shepard could never describe Wrex as a polite person, he'd seen him tearing enemies apart with his bare hands and suspected that the leader of Urdnot enjoyed it. Yet, even the first time they met, when Wrex demanded the commander to mind his own business, he hadn't transposed so much anger and frustration with his words as he did now.

Anything Shepard could say to him, wasn't going to be met with calm and understanding, and the only thing the commander hoped to help him now was the years of their friendship.

"Wrex," he said with a sigh, while not trying to project his own fears into his voice, "we are yet not sure how, but we think they were indoctrinated."

Wrex closed his eyes for a moment, placing his palms on the table in front of him, leaning on them. Shepard could swear he could see muscles rippling under the krogan’s skin as its owner tried to maintain in control, "all of them? The entire city?" he asked quietly, "how?"

Shepard turned his head to look over his squad, trying to find anyone who could help him out. His eyes stopped on Liara.

Liara returned the gaze and Shepard saw uncertainty there. Never the less, Liara started to speak, "I and Javik spent a good portion of yesterday researching the," she stumbled over her words as she looked at the turian primarch, "researching the Cerberus device we talked about yesterday," she said. "We couldn't gather a lot of information, but according to what we've seen so far, it has indoctrinating properties, similar to any reaper tech we previously encountered."

"None of which could do anything like this," Victus shook his head, "the indoctrination property of any reaper tech has a limited range and you need to spend some time in its presence."

The entire room became silent again. In that silence, Wrex's voice sounded even more menacing. "In other words," he said, "you don't know."

"I'm sorry," Liara shook her head.

"In this case," Wrex concluded, "let's gather everything we've got and move out against them."

"Are you out of your mind?" Victus protested, "it will be a slaughter!"

Teeth bared, Wrex turned sharply towards the primarch, starting to rapidly move in his direction. "Those are my people!" he roared as he reached the turian, "and what do you propose? Sit here and wait until Cerberus augment them with reaper parts?" he was already in the Primarch’s space, pushing him backwards.

Momentarily, every single turian pulled out guns, pointing them at the leader of Urdnot. The krogan followed suit, aiming at the turian delegation instead, while the _Normandy_ crew, without a single word said, took several steps back and pointed guns on both of the sides.

The situation was going to turn bad if Shepard wouldn't interfere. He took a step forward placing a hand on Wrex's shoulder, "please," he asked softly, but authoritatively, "we will get them back, we only need a plan. Shooting each-other won't help."

The gaze of the leader of Urdnot switched from Victus to Shepard and for a moment the commander was sure he would have to fight his friend, in which case almost no-one was getting out of here alive. A shiver ran down his spine, but he concentrating on keeping his facade cool and unaffected.

Another moment passed, before Wrex's face softened and he shook his head. "They are my people," he repeated, and Shepard was surprised to hear not anger, but deep hurt in Wrex's voice, which for a moment made the krogan sound extremely vulnerable. He groaned then, regaining his composure, "I will get them out or die trying, but bloodshed right now won't help," he added with a nod.

"What we need is a plan," Victus said as he stepped forward, looking Wrex in the eyes, "reinforcements won't arrive faster than in few days and it might be too late by then, so we need to figure out what to do now."

Wrex, who at that point was starting to step away from the turian, looked back at him and Shepard could've sworn he saw surprise in krogan eyes, but it disappeared quickly, replaced with raw determination. "We need a better map of the place," he nodded in agreement, "no-one has been in those ruins for centuries and if they were, it was a quick run-from-a-thresher-maw," he glanced at Shepard, "still, you will be the best candidate to lead us in there," he said addressing the commander.

Shepard couldn't see Kaidan, but a nudging feeling on the back of his neck told him exactly what face the other man made. Another nudging feeling told Shepard that he had to agree, that Leviathans themselves thought it was important, that he should be there in person.

"The last time I've been there, I had a reaper on one side and the mother of all thresher maws on the other, I didn't’ exactly have time for sight seeing," he said. It wasn't an agreement, neither did he deny he’d lead what little troops they had. He sincerely hopped that it would be enough to satisfy both Wrex and his husband, while giving him a chance to think. "Meanwhile, no-one thought about another question," he added, "why none of the people present here were affected? My crew, as well as the primarch's people, hadn't arrived until yesterday, but why not you, Wrex, or any other krogan that is still here? What do we have in common? Perhaps it is something we can use to snap the rest out of it?"

It worked, because instead of looking at him, every single person in the hall started to exchange glances, a low rumble of whispers filled the room.

"None of us had been present in the city the entire time Cerberus has been here," Wrex replied with a shrug, "I myself was on the Citadel, negotiating with the council, arrived back as soon as I heard about the situation. Grunt was there too, trying his skills as an ambassador."

One of the Shepard's eyebrows rose involuntarily as he looked at Grunt. The other krogan turned to Shepard, grinning, "yeah, it didn't work so well," he said.

"Ok, and what about the rest?" Shepard asked, trying to ignore the urge to interrogate Grunt about his experience.

"And the rest are our hunters," Wrex replied simply, "they were spending most of the time out of the city and were only summoned back when the turian delegation arrived, as we needed more security. I don't think it is something that can help us."

"Aghrm," Grunt interviened, "Uwosh was with me at the Citadel, Bakara sent her there for some reason. She's not here."

Shepard sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his fingers. If they had a pattern, even if it couldn't help the other krogans, it was gone now. Before Grunt informed them about Uwosh missing, they at least could figure out how much time everyone had before whatever Cerberus was using could start affecting them.

Still, the indoctrination was a time consuming process, and Uwosh wasn't here long enough to lose her mind. He saw people on the verge of making the final step, saw how they behaved. He talked to Uwosh yesterday and she looked absolutely fine, no twitching, no looking distantly at the empty corners, like there was something there no-one else could see.

It was easy to assume she was a traitor, but Shepard spoke with her. He saw a spark in her eyes every time she told she wanted to help her people, he saw rage there when she mentioned revenge for her taken brothers and sisters. Those raw emotions were difficult to fake.

"Are you sure she went to the ruins and not simply somewhere in the city?" Shepard asked.

"Yeah," Grunt nodded, "said that she needed to go, that it was important," he shrugged, "sometimes she gets the craziest ideas."

And Grunt was often missing the obvious details, Shepard thought as he looked at the krogan in surprise, "wait, she said it?" he asked.

"Well, yeah," Grunt nodded, "woke up, saw the others walking, gave me this, and followed the rest," he extracted a small piece of leather and handed it to the commander.

It was a piece of thick hide, that belonged to some local animal. There was nothing special about the leather, it wasn't even perfectly worked, but there was a number written on it with black ink. On the top of his head, Shepard couldn't see what the number could mean. It wasn't time, it wasn't coordinates, nor was it anything he could have guessed by simply looking at it.

"Does anyone know what it means?" he asked showing the number to the rest of the krogan.

"Sure," it was Krroz who answered the question, "this is a tracker number, us hunters use. Sometimes we plant one on whatever we hunt, so it'd lead us to it's nest," he stopped for a moment, as he was contemplating something, "ha!" he then said, almost bouncing up from the ground from what looked like excitement, "Clever! If it is a tracker she's got on her, I can not only get the exact location, but some layout of the surroundings."

"Well," Wrex nodded to the krogan hunter, "then get to work, we will move out as soon as you get us the information."

"Let me point out," Victus said, "that the exact location doesn't mean we have a plan of action."

Wrex looked at the primarch, then turned to Shepard, "you're the planning person," he said with a shrug, "get us something while we are on the move."

***

Generally, everyone who knew Shepard considered him to be good at everything he tried. In practice, it was far from the truth. While there were things he could do well, things he was trained to do well, there were many things he was terrible at. For example, no matter how hard he tried, he could understand nothing further than the basics of biology, or chemistry. The only thing he knew well about medicine was battlefield first aid and that aspirin was good against hangovers. Kaidan was also too eager  to praise his cooking skills and while his old roommate taught him enough to figure out how to scramble a simple dinner, the guy was way more successful in teaching Shepard other things his husband could appreciate. Not to mention Shepard had no idea how well he'd function in society without spelling and grammar auto-correcting software.

Planning on the spot meanwhile, was never among the things Shepard was bad at. Still, the plan he came up with about dividing what little manpower they had into small groups that would attempt to sneak into the Cerberus layer, while the _Normandy_ and the turian fighters were providing a distraction, seemed like the worst idea that ever crossed the commander's mind. There were still too many variables, too many unknown factors. The enemy still outnumbered them one to several hundreds.

Kaidan didn't try to argue, at least not in public. In fact, they hadn't spoke a single word to each-other since Shepard agreed to lead their assault. He stood a little away from the group of people who tried to compose a plan of action and by the look on the other man's face Shepard could see how upset he was with the way everything played out.

"Seventy one hours," Legion had said to him during that little time before Krroz composed the layout of the surroundings around the tracking beacon. He placed a datapad with own calculations in front of Shepard on the table, "seventy one hours it takes to fully indoctrinate someone using one of the bracelets."

Shepard had wondered out loud if that was why Cerberus needed three days of no-one touching them on Rannoch, in which case it was possible they expected not only to get the geth on their side, but the entire city of Lah'Quib.

"Kee'Lah," Tali had whispered, "looks like you did more for our people than any of us ever imagined. I'm happy you were there."

And Shepard was happy too. In thirty five years of his life he'd killed a lot of people. Even more he managed to save, because it was something he considered to be right, something he could never give up on. Civilizations survived because of him, and the mere knowledge of it was worth a life of a soldier. Perhaps, Shepard thought as he looked at Kaidan, it was even worth a life of one soldier and a happiness of another.

Primarch Victus had talked to him privately a few moments afterwards. They had two days left before whatever Cerberus had used on the city would start affecting them. It was enough time to call for reinforcements and conduct a better operation. Shepard argued that Cerberus most likely didn't have the equipment to start augmenting the krogans on hand, that they had already started to transport them somewhere towards their main base and once their ships would reach a mass relay, it would be impossible to find the destination of their jump. It was unless someone had a way of tracking them.

"Krogan hunters use the tracking beacons to locate the nest of the beast packs," Victus sighed quietly, "perhaps Uwosh had a different idea in mind when she went for the eye of the storm, wanted to cut the beast's head, instead of chopping on its flank?"

It was also true. Urdnot was the largest, most successful and most reconstructed city on Tuchanka, but it wasn't the only one. It's population consisted of almost twenty thousand krogan and rising rapidly, but even after the genophage and the losses of war, it was only a portion of the krogan race. They could simply allow Cerberus to take the krogans away, could gather enough ships from the Council races to attack the Cerberus base and finally get rid of them once and for all, but at a price of losing the entire clan Urdnot in the process.

A calculus of war, a sacrifice of few to save many.

Shepard had to make a decision like that many times, because he'd been stuck in a corner having no other way to act. Yet, no matter how logical it sounded, he didn't feel that it was right. There were other ways, more difficult ways, but ones that none the less could lead them to victory. There was always a way to win without sacrifice.

"The beast has three heads," Shepard had replied to Victus, "there is no guarantee that the one you want to cut will be the last of them."

Victus' features crinkled and he shook his head. "Speaking in metaphors isn't my strong point," he said.

"Neither is mine," Shepard replied, "but we have options open, which makes your suggestion unacceptable. Not taking into account, that after it, not even I will be able to talk Wrex down from the path of war."

Victus looked somewhere in the distance before giving a single nod. "Thank you, Shepard," he said, "I hoped you'd disagree."

Now, that they were riding one of the krogan tomkahs towards Kalros ruins, as he kept sneaking a peek at Kaidan, he couldn't stop hoping the plan of not needing to sacrifice was applicable not only for their current mission. They only needed to find another route.

***

The nights on Tuchanka were rough. The insane temperatures of the day were cooling down into a freezing cold, and there were too many predators to safely travel in the wilds during the night. Most of them were choosing caution against a crowd of krogan counted in thousands, but soon even they started to notice unresponsiveness.

A pack of wild varren were surrounding them for an hour, before they attempted an assault on the rear. There were many children, who couldn't travel as fast as the adults there, they fell to the maws of varren in dozens and Uwosh couldn't do a thing about it. Even if she was sure about her capabilities of taking down the six Cerberus operatives leading them, she was going to die in the attempt, dooming the rest of the krogan.

With tears on her eyes Uwosh watched the children, one by one being snatched by the damned animals.

Some time later a thresher maw was attracted by the procession. Unlike the varren, it didn't give a second thought about attacking them. The thing emerged from the sandy ground, snapping three krogans who walked close to each-other in one grab and dragged them under the ground.

Each moment spent walking, Uwosh felt more enraged, her vision filling with red colors. Still, she continued suppress the urge, continued to walk, promising herself that Cerberus was going to pay for every fallen krogan today and every day before it, since they stepped on the grounds on her planet.

It took hours before their procession was able to reach their destination. By that time, the sun rose high above the horizon, turning the freezing cold of the night into the intense heat of the day.

From the distance, Uwosh was able to see the ancient ruins, like teeth of an old enormous creature they towered over the empty desert. The area around the ruins was familiar to her. The lush vegetation of the old city was a hiding spot for many animals, making it the perfect hunting grounds. Still, she had never ventured deep into the ruins, as it was too dangerous even for a trained pack of hunters.

Their procession was met by several more Cerberus operatives, who quickly started to sort through the incomers, dividing them into groups and leading them into different locations, like cattle. Most of them were oriented towards some barely intact buildings, while others were loaded into shuttles and sent away somewhere else.

None of the krogans were forwarded towards the center of the ruins, to the remains of the shroud, where Cerberus troops seemed to be concentrated the most. At the same time, the place was surrounded by many half-ruined constructions and it was a perfect opportunity to slip away. Silently, while no-one was looking, Uwosh stepped into the shadows, starting to move from one destroyed building to another.

Cerberus had their patrols everywhere. There were also several tower-like construction providing their agents with a better view on the valley, as if they expected incoming forces from every direction. It was making it impossible to sneak into the ruins without every single operative alerted. But there was also an advantage to the Cerberus positions. While all of them were concentrating at the incoming threat from beyond the city, none of them was watching into her direction.

It was quite a hike to the shroud on foot. Several times she was almost caught sneaking, but managed to hide the last moment. Once she encountered a single varren who was scouting the area, or simply looking for the missing pack. It attacked her, but Uwosh was stronger. Grabbing a rock from the ground, she managed to knock it down with a single hit. She pondered about killing the varren, but left it for the desert to decide its fate.

There was a lot of open space before the Valley of Strength, which made it almost impossible to continue moving undetected. From the last row of intact constructions surrounding the area before the shroud, Uwosh could see an enormous looking dig site. It was so big, that it made it difficult to believe Cerberus managed a project of this scope in such a small amount of time.

It was still impossible to see the details, so she began dashing from one statute to another towards the edge of the site. Finally, hidden in the rubble of one of the nearby pyramids, Uwosh managed to take a closer look.

"I do not hear my master any longer," she heard the voice before she was able to see the thing which spoke. It was a deep, nerve wrenching voice, which made her skin shiver in dread. At first, Uwosh thought that the deepness of it, the volume of it was created by the acoustics of the city, but soon realized that the voice was transferred straight into her head.

The sight of the thing which spoke, scared her even more, but at the same time another wave of anger rose, the force of it was capable to suppress the fear. Down below, on the bottom of the hole laid a reaper, broken, unmovable, but alive. Its single red sensor was moving from one direction to another, like it was trying to access the surroundings, like it was awoken merely moments ago.

"Work with us, and we will give you a new master," spoke a man who stood in front of it. Uwosh was not capable of seeing the features of the man, only that he had dirty-blond hair and wore a lab coat.

"You fool," the Reaper said, "you're an insect in front of me, meaningless. I have no reason to listen to you."

"Look at you, you're broken, powerless," we can destroy you as easily as we could rebuild you," the man continued.

"I have no reason to exist when my kind is no-more, have no purpose. Destroy me if you wish, I have no interest of helping you."

"Perhaps there is a way to spark your interest," the man said, "The device, the one which made your kin first turn on your creators, we found it. Work with us, and we can bring your kind back."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You probably noticed several things about this update. First of all, I merged some chapters together in the beginning. It took me some time to do, because I also revised some scenes. Most importantly, I added the total amount of chapters which is 46. As you can see, I'm pretty close to finishing and I'm very excited about it. :)


	32. Chapter 32

The Tomkahs stopped on the verge of the city, behind a formation of rocks that was not big enough to call a mountain. The formation provided their assault team enough cover to stay hidden, but at the same time, their own vision on the old krogan city was cut off.

Shepard stepped out of the vehicle and looked around. The territory surrounding the city was nothing but a large open desert prickled with some rocks and occasional rubble from the ruins. The pyramid-like constructions, half ruined by time and war, were starting to appear even here, but they were too small to provide a safe passage to the city.

One by one, the members of Shepard's team, as well as krogan hunters, started to emerge from the Tomkahs. Instantly, they started to build a canopy-style tent to protect their makeshift camp from the merciless sun of Tuchanka.

"There is no way anyone gets to the city without them seeing us from a few clicks away," Kaidan sighed as he approached Shepard, his intonation more annoyed than anything else.

"Yeah, and I don't think turian air support will be enough of a distraction," Shepard agreed. The only plan he came up with was deemed to be a failure after assessing the surroundings on the spot. If they were to divide into groups and assault the ruins from different sides, Cerberus snipers were simply going to pick them one by one.

Shepard wanted to punch the rock formation in frustration, but knew that it wouldn't do any good.

"And yet, we won't simply sit here and do nothing," Wrex said as he too approached the commander.

"We need a bigger distraction," Shepard pointed out.

He scratched the nape of his neck where it was connecting to his head, wiping off the droplets of sweat that started to gather there, tickling his skin. He looked over their Tomkahs thinking about sacrificing a portion of them by sending empty tanks to the edge of the city with set timers to detonate on arrival. Perhaps, that could suffice as a destruction. Before he could open his mouth to propose the idea, even if it sounded like a bad one, Krroz approached them, flashing his omni-tool before their eyes.

"I've got a transmission from Uwosh," he said, pointing at a small screen, which appeared over his wrist.

Shepard looked down at the screen and saw the face of the krogan huntress, whose expression was distressed, perhaps even frightened. "Wrex, Commander Shepard," she said, "we have a major problem here," with those words the picture on the screen changed, the camera turning towards what looked to be an excavation site.

Shepard felt his heart stopping for a moment. He heard Kaidan muttering a shocked 'oh god,' and Wrex's groan as he watched a Reaper raising up to stand on its multiple metal limbs in the middle of a giant hole in the ground.

A soul-wrenching metallic roar echoed around the wilds, coming at the same time from the omni-tool speakers and from above their heads, from the direction of the old ruins. A roar that Shepard could feel reaching into his head, planting a seed of primal fear into his core and leaving him breathless and shivering. Kaidan's hand grasped his arm in a grip so tight, that he could feel it even through the armor.

"Goddess," Liara inhaled, her voice shaking. She made a step backwards, until her back touched Javik's shoulder, who instantly wrapped his arm around her torso in a protective manner.

Tali turned around, taking Garrus' hand into hers, and Shepard could see tears appearing in her eyes, while the turian's own face turned stone-like, with only his eyes open wide.

Neith covered her mouth with her hand, breathing heavily, while Vega clenched to his gun so hard, Shepard though he could break it. Even Legion looked frightened, placing his hand over his chest in a gesture that seemed unintentional.

Shepard mind was racing fast, finally catching up with his subconsciousness on which level he already knew what scared everyone the most. They've seen Reapers before, fought them, they won. There were no reason to experience a fear so great, if not only for one simple realization. On several occasions they saw cases of synthetic lives surviving the Citadel beam, they interacted with them. Yet, it was the first time they understood it was possible for some Reapers to find a way to live through the extermination too.

The image on the omni-tool screen changed, showing Uwosh again, but this time the footage was shaking, as if the krogan was on the run, "I don't know what happened," she exhaled, "I think Cerberus pissed it off somehow," she said, "the Reaper started to attack everyone in its vicinity. I'm trying to make it towards the Shroud, I think whatever is keeping our people in thrall, is in there." A red light flashed behind her back and Uwosh was thrown forward. The screen shook violently before turning into static.

"Uwosh!" Grunt roared striding towards Krroz, grabbing the hunter by the arm, "Uwosh!" he yelled into the screen, but with no reply coming.

A long moment of silence hung upon their group. Wrex was the first one to disturb it. He pointed vaguely in the direction of ruins, "is this a distraction enough?" he asked.

Adrenalin was still pumping through Shepard's veins, he clenched his fists and started to walk towards the tanks, ignoring Wrex's question as well as the hand which was still squeezing his biceps, "We need to move," he announced as he reached the Tomkah, opening the hatch on its side, "this is the only chance we've got."

"Shepard!" Kaidan yelled striding behind him.

Shepard turned his head, looking his husband in the eyes. He remembered their conversation in the privacy of the medical bay, remembered his own thought about sacrificing one for the sake of many not so long ago. He knew that what he was about to do was unfair to Kaidan, knew that his actions could reflect on a grand scale for their relationship.

He hoped silently that Kaidan wouldn't see it as Shepard’s choice, but as circumstances playing out in a way none of them could predict. Even if deep down Shepard was glad for the opportunity, felt he needed to be there, he'd never planned to rush into combat head-first, but he couldn't simply be left behind in a middle of a desert wilderness to wave a white handkerchief to the leaving Tomkahs either.

"I need you with me," Shepard said, "I need you to watch my back, as I’ve never needed it before." The words were calm, authoritative, but even without intention, the commander managed to add a weight of every emotion he felt into them.

Kaidan looked Shepard in the eyes for a moment that felt like eternity. Finally, he nodded once, "then stop standing here, blocking the hatch," he said.

There was a chuckle following his words, but his tone was cold. Shepard turned his head away and quickly got into the vehicle, afraid the tone was aimed at him. An unpleasant sensation started to swirl in the pit of his stomach, but he ignored it, because for the time being, every one of them needed their full emotional investment to be turned towards the Reaper and not each-other.

***

The beam of the Reaper which landed behind Uwosh had missed her by a good several meters, but the shockwave of it send her tumbling forward. She landed in the middle of an open terrace, in view of dozens of Cerberus operatives. In any other circumstances, it would have been a no-win scenario, because no-matter how fast she could've been, how strong, taking on so many people, while being surrounded was definite death.

Uwosh wasn't going to go down without a fight. She rose from the ground, reaching for her shotgun, taking defencive stance, but noticed that no-one payed attention, they were too focused on getting out alive.

Grateful for the luck, Uwosh rushed towards the closest cover, hiding behind a large, half-destroyed column, from where she was able to take a stock of her surroundings. Most of the Cerberus agents were on their way towards the shuttles, which were taking off as soon as they were full. Some of them were flying away, others were turning towards the Reaper, firing at it. The operatives still left on the ground were carrying instruments Uwosh didn't know the purpose for, but all of the equipment was coming from the ruins of the Shroud.

Whatever was going on there, she had to take a closer look.

Moving unnoticed among the panic was easier than she anticipated, and she was able to reach the construction site without any incidents, running from one pile of rubble to another. She was almost caught when an atlas stepped out of the large entryway into the Shroud, followed by a squad of ground troops. They stood immobile in front of the entrance as if guarding it and Uwosh already started to make a plan of attack, when several turian fighters appeared in the sky.

"Orders?" one of the Cerberus soldiers asked into the intercom in his helmet. He listened for a moment, before turning to the rest of the group, gesturing towards the sky, "move out," he ordered, "take those fighters down."

The atlas rattled as it made the first step, its large metal foot landing on the ground with a loud stomp. It rose fully then, bringing his guns into a ready position, starting to move towards the colossus in the middle of the dig site, followed by the rest of the foot troopers.

Uwosh used the opening and slipped into the Shroud.

The ground level of the facility was empty, but there was a large, easy-noticeable staircase leading underground. Uwosh looked around to check if anyone was watching her, before she started to descend down the stairs.

"I'm telling you, I need more time to upload it," was the first thing she heard, before she was even able to see anything. The familiarity of the voice stroke her, making her even angrier, drowned in a feeling of betrayal.

Another voice was unfamiliar and sounded like the person who spoke wasn't present in the room, but communicated through a speaker of some sort. Still, the man sounded pleasant, almost lulling. His soft, a little raspy baritone was echoing through the walls of the underground chamber, his intonation calm. "It's alright, Ereba," he was saying, "your contribution to the cause is invaluable, you can be proud of yourself."

"I don't see the reason to continue," Ereba pleaded, "its programming is too large to send it directly to the base, all of the computer frames will have to be physically removed and transported there. It will be impossible to do with the commotion outside," she hissed.

"You're a smart girl, you'll figure something out," the voice encouraged.

A brief moment of silence hung upon them.  Uwosh took it as a chance to look around the place she found herself in. The room looked unlike anything she'd seen before, made of smooth, curving metal, which was coming out of a cave-like formations of glistening rocks, like it was growing out of them, like it was the rock formed around the metal.

There were writing on the walls, which Uwosh couldn't read, but could see pictures accompanying those unfamiliar letters. They were images of long tall people, surrounded in blue flames of what she suspected to be biotics. The depicted people gathered around a much larger man with his arms raised up in the air, holding a giant ball of blue energy. Those figures were shown worshiping the man, bringing gifts to his feet, kneeling before him.

There were two people in the room. One of them was an asari, whom Uwosh knew personally. They were not friends, but the way Ereba was helping the krogan community and the fact she decided to stay on Tuchanka, dedicating her life to the krogan after her bondmate was killed, made Uwosh respect the asari. It looked like her trust in Ereba was misplaced.

The second person wasn't really in a room, but a hologram. It was difficult to see what the man looked like, as he was facing another direction, the holographic projection making him look monochrome green. Uwosh was only certain about that man being a human who wore a business suite darker than his hair.

Never the less, Uwosh didn't care about the man. The hologram could do nothing against her, and while Ereba was a biotic like any other member of her race, which made her a dangerous opponent by default, the element of surprise was still on the Uwosh's side. It was a perfect opportunity to strike and Uwosh made a step towards the asari, but a cool metal object touched her neck before she could move.

"Well, well, whom do we have here," another male voice whispered next to her.

The krogan hunter was too close to give up now. She roared, turning around and throwing herself on the man. She expected him to shoot, expected to get injured and was prepared for the physical pain, but instead a hand landed on her chest.

A weave of unknown energy washed through her, stopping her on the tracks, making her unable to move a single muscle, but only look at the man who captured her. It was the same person whom she saw talking to the Reaper at the excavation site, a human with short dark-blond hair and blue eyes. Uwosh had difficulties distinguishing human features further than that, but she noticed many wrinkles on his face, which told her that the man was older than Shepard.

She slid her gaze down to look at the reason of her inability to move and saw a light metal bracelet the man wore on his wrist. No matter how well she could see the thing, she couldn't concentrate on it, like if some force was pushing her gaze away.  

A thick layer of fog spread before her eyes and sweet, quiet whispers sounded inside her head. An image of an old battle with a thresher maw appeared in her mind, the pain of its acid burning through her armor, through the thick skin of her abdomen. Her eyes started to burn with tears, which gathered quickly, starting to run down her cheeks.

"Sorry, but you're not going anywhere," the man said.

***

From a closer distance, the Kalros Ruins looked like a battlefield larger than the one Shepard had witnessed here almost two years ago. The sky above the ancient krogan city was filled with Cerberus kodiaks, launching an assault against the mental colossus. A beam of red energy emerged from under the Reaper's protective plates, hitting several kodiaks in one attack.

One of the white and orange shuttles exploded in the sky, scattering metal scraps and still burning plastic and rubber over the city. The second shuttle was trying to maneuver away from the beam, but was scraped by it and lost half of its rear. The kodiak trembled in the air and started to rapidly lose its altitude, falling towards the incoming Tomkahs.

Krroz, who was driving the tank with Shepard on board, turned to the left, trying to avoid the collision. He managed to do it in time, but the kodiak exploded too close, almost knocking some of the Tomkahs on their sides. There were no inertia dampeners in the Tomkahs, so the impact from the shockwave almost sent everyone inside flying if not for the metal rails they kept holding into.

An intercom came to life and Wrex's voice sounded inside the tank. "Damn, is everyone alright there?" he asked.

"Been better," Shepard replied truthfully. Almost his entire right side burned with pain, but it didn't feel like he was injured, more like a strained muscle. His bad leg took too much of his weight when he tried to balance himself, and he started to feel a nagging ache spreading over it, which was bound to turn into another round of nerve-wrenching pain any time in the future.

"Hey, Shepard," Wrex chuckled somewhat sadly, "fighting a Reaper again, together, like good old times. You did manage to take down one of them on foot before, so this one doesn't stand a chance."

"Yeah, only last time I was capable of running a hundred meters without falling somewhere midway, crouched in pain," Shepard forced a chuckle, but he didn't think it sounded believable.

"Well, it just means I'll have to shoot for both of us," Wrex grinned.

"What's the point to shoot twice as much, while most of the shots are going to miss," Garrus joined in, "everyone knows, that only my presence was kipping his ass safe all that time."

"I am flattered by your attention guys, but you not need to argue," Shepard grinned looking at Kaidan who only rolled his eyes, "I'm already spoken for."

"Nah," Wrex replied, "a krogan boyfriend would be too much... eh, to take in for him anyway."

"The jokes among this group are getting worse and worse every year," Javik sighed in a tone which was very serious, but which made the entire team burst into a short laughter. It helped a little to push the stress of the situation away, to see things a little cleared without fear clouding the mind.

But the moment didn't last. Another voice joined in from the intercom, this time it was one of the turian soldiers, "we are inbound, have visual on the enemy," he said.

"Circle around it, stay out the range of the beam and let it first deal with Cerberus," Shepard ordered, "the _Normandy_ is on its way to land heavy fire on the Reaper."

"Negative," the turian replied, "Cerberus just sent the enthralled krogan towards the destroyer, while they evacuate. They will be in a range in five."

"Commander," Joker's voice joined in, "the _Normandy_ 's guns are amazing, considering their precision with the force of punch they can land, but even we aren't capable of shooting the thing down without taking a good chunk of the krogans if they will be in melee with it."

"Damn it!" Shepard swore, "what is out ETA?" he asked Krroz.

"Six minutes," the krogan replied.

"I don't care what you do, but make it four," Shepard commanded as he stood up and went towards the cannon station, "we are not losing Urdnot today."

The Tomkah tank, while inferior in almost all of its aspects to the alliance Mako, had very similar firepower. There was a machine gun with automatically recharging ammo clips and a heavy cannon, which was also auto-reloading, but could shoot only once every five seconds.

The destroyer was still too far away to land a perfect shot, but the scope of the turret allowed Shepard to see it in better detail. The beam of the Reaper worked perfectly, but the colossus seemed heavily damaged at the same time. Most of its metal armor was missing, or twisted into strange shapes, which Shepard suspected was the work of Kalros.

Another Cerberus kodiak managed to land a hit perfectly between Reaper's plates, before the kodiak itself was taken down from the sky by one of the turian fighters. The Reaper trembled and leaned to the side, as if close to falling, but regained balance the last moment, defying the laws of gravity.

"The destroyer," one of the turian pilots said through the intercom, "four of its legs are still stuck in the sand," he announced, "it's trapped."

"Yeah, and in this case it gives it an advantage. You can't trip it," Shepard groaned, "are you able to aim for its legs?"

"We will need another circle around it," the turian replied and Shepard watched six fighters turning around and starting to approach the destroyer, "affirmative," the turian said, "we can get a clear shot. No, wait, there is a Cerberus Atlas on our three o’clock."

Shepard saw a ball of yellow light flying up into the air from the ground. It reached one of the fighters which exploded into an orange ball of fire, taking the ship down from the sky. Five other fighters had to turn midflight spreading their attention now on two targets.

The Reaper was now in firing range, but the Tomkah was rolling down the rocky road at maximum speed, which was making it shaky and unstable. Still, Shepard aimed the cannon, "be ready to get its attention," he said and shot. The rocket flew towards the colossus, but hit its armored plate. The destroyer didn't even flinch, but what Shepard considered to substitute its head now turned into their direction. "All Tomkahs, fire at will and brace for evasive maneuvers," Shepard commanded as he watched the red eye of the Reaper powering up.

It didn't have enough time to aim the beam, as four other tanks fired. All four missiles hit their target and the red eye started to sparkle, the blue electrical charges emanating from under its core. It tried to make a step, but couldn't move from its trapped position. The red light of its eye started to power down.

There was a cheering over the comm and inside the Tomkah. Shepard felt a wave of relief washing over him as he saw the Reaper going down. It felt so good, that he almost forgot about Cerberus, about leviathans and still enthralled Urdnot krogans.

Unfortunately, their relief didn't last. Another moment and the krogan reached their destination, starting to shoot the Reaper with the handheld weapons they carried from home. Those who didn't have a weapon, reduced to throwing rocks, some started to slide down the excavation site, attacking its metal legs with powerful, but very ineffective head-slams.

And then the red Reaper eye blinked back to life again.

It looked around, watching the krogan swarming it, watched them wave after wave approaching, unable to do any harm to the Reaper. The red eye flashed with energy and another beam emerged from under its plating, tearing the air with a soul-wrenching screech. It started from the edge of the crater and moved further into the crowd, evaporizing a good several dozens of krogan. Shepard was now close enough to see it first hand in detail.

Wrex roared somewhere in the background. "Shepard!" he yelled loudly, even if the commander could perfectly hear him without it, "we've got to get to the Shroud, release my people from whatever is controlling them," he said.

Shepard looked over the battlefield again, trying to find a weak point, the safest route that could lead them towards the almost ruined construction. The passageway towards the entrance was covered from two sides by half-destroyed walls with the only road leading in blocked by a Reaper and a crowd of krogan. There were several spots among the ruins where a Mako could've crossed without any problem, but unfortunately, the same couldn't have been said about a Tomkah.

Finally, Shepard was able to find one spot in the row of obstacles, where they had a chance of passing. It was an old staircase, leading behind the destroyer. There was a fallen column blocking the staircase, one end of which was still resting on a pedestal it was originally standing on, while the other end was propped against the ground. The column had a fracture running through its middle and there was a good chance their tank could break it in half while passing through on a high speed. If it was only a surface crack, on the other hand, they were bound to collide with several tons of solid rock. It was impossible to tell which was the case.

Shepard's hand touched the turret control, pondering about sending a rocket first, but if the column broke in two before their nose passed, half of the column was going to end up on the ground, becoming unmovable, stuck between the stairs, blocking their way.

"Krroz," Shepard addressed his driver, "on our five, do you think a Tomkah can pass through?" he asked.

The krogan turned his scope towards the location the commander pointed him at. It took him a short moment to understand what Shepard was implying, but finally he hummed an agreement, "that'll be hell of a bumpy ride, though" he said.

There was another problem with the plan. Even if the odds were in their favour and they managed to pass the staircase, they were still going to end up next to the Reaper's flank, perfectly in range for its beam. Plus, there was a chance for the both halves of the column to lend on the staircase in a way that would block the passage after the first vehicle passed.

Shepard turned away from the scope and looked around the tank. Out of his crew, only Kaidan, Garrus, Tali, Javik and two soldiers from the Normandy were present, while the rest were spread into different Tomkahs.

There was a chance that what Shepard was about to order now was going to endanger his crewmates even more, but he couldn't prioritize. They all knew what they signed up for.

"Wrex," Shepard called out, "I need you and the rest of the Tomkahs to circle around, aid the turian fighters to draw the Reaper's fire."

Wrex emitted a sound which was something in between a sigh and a groan, there was no time, nor place for doubts, so even if he had any, he didn't voice them. Shepard suspected that it was also because Wrex knew him so well, knew that he was going to find a way to free the krogans. Shepard believed it too. Even if the column was going to stop them, they were going to make it to the Shroud in time, even if they'd have to figure how to grow wings and fly there.

He barked an order and four other Tomkas started to turn, separating from the moving trajectory of their tank.

"You'd better hold into something," Krroz announced as he accelerated the Tomkah to its maximum, "and hope it's gonna work."

The tank almost flew up in the air as they reached the staircase, then, too soon for everyone to mentally prepare for it, it collided with the column. Losing its velocity, the vehicle trembled violently, the inercia almost pushed everyone from their seats forward into the front of the tank. Shepard held tightly into the railing next to his seat, but even then he was tossed forward so hard that the thin seatbelts dug into the chestplate of his armor, pushing out the air out of his lungs. The Tomkah didn't stop moving. With a loud crash, the column gave a way to the force of their momentum, splitting in half and letting the tank through.

The edge of the excavation site meanwhile, was something Shepard didn't have time to take into account. As they rolled in on the sandy ground, the enormous wheels of the vehicle squealed. Krroz tried to pull the brakes and turn the Tomkah forty five degrees at the same time, almost sending everyone inside into another flight.

The Tomkah reeled, half spinning on the spot. It turned around, almost managing to avoid the edge of the pit, but the ground under their rear wheels broke apart and started to collapse, taking the back side of the tank down into the pit.

Krroz tried to compensate the loss of balance by pushing the tank forward, but the wheels only dug deeper into the ground, spinning uselessly in the sand. The tank inclined dangerously, starting to slowly but surely slip down.

There wasn't much time to think. Shepard climbed out of the artillery starion, trying to get to the front side of the tank, yelling at everyone to follow him in attempt to use the weight of their bodies to rebalance the vehicle.

"This isn't going to work!" Krroz barked, "get out from the tank."

Time seemed to slow around them. Shepard looked at the hunter, who was still trying to push the Tomkah out of the sandy trap pushing it to the maximum of its capacity, slowing the sinking, but not stopping it. He was concentrating solemnly on his task, but managed to spare a single glance at the commander, the understanding of the situation was written in his eyes -- the Tomkah was going to go down the moment the krogan stood up from his post.

"Just go," Krroz shook his head.

Shepard nodded. "Everyone, get out," he ordered turning around and moving to the hatch to open it. It took no longer than several seconds for everyone to get up and jump out the Tomkah to the very edge of the excavation site, but it was enough for yet another collapse under the tank's wheels.

Shepard was the last to get out and the moment his feet touched the ground, the Tomkah inclined even further, starting to slide towards the metal colossus waiting for it in the middle of the pit.

Halfway down, Shepard saw Krroz finally appearing from the tank. He held a massive rocket launcher in his hands and the moment the vehicle was far enough, he aimed the launcher and shot. Tomkah bursted into flames as it reached one of the Reaper trapped legs and two more rockets was all it took for it to blow in a burst of yellow-orange fire and black smoke, taking most of the trapped leg with it.

The reaper trembled, but didn't even turn its head, continuing to blast the other side of the dig site.

Krroz meanwhile turned to Shepard, giving him a thumbs up. The slope of the pit was unclimbable, but with enough luck the krogan could find a way out. Shepard nodded again and turned around to find himself before a large terrace leading to the Shroud.

The comm bursted into life once more and Wrex's voice demanded the commanders attention, "Shepard," he said in a tone of anger and annoyance, "the stupid things keeps ignoring us, concentrating on my people, like it’s trying to kill as many as it can. Hurry your ass!"

"We're almost there," he replied.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those interested (and those who are not), I started a series of short stories around the novel: [Tales of A Retired Hero](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2581352/chapters/5745347) . First two of them take place before the events of the Tides of Time, so can be read as stand alone fics.  
> I also in a need of beta for the short stories, so if anyone's interested, I would appreciate it.  
> Also, lets see how many readers I've lost by changing the story's rating to M...


	33. Chapter 33

The place Shepard found himself standing in front of looked nothing as he remembered. Destroyed in an explosion two years ago, the enormous construction made of green stone and metal was gone. There was little left, but a broken foundation and a countless amount of debris scattered around, scaling from chunks bigger than Shepard himself, to gravel that crunched under his feet with each step he took.

Splinters of the green rock, unnatural for Tuchanka, but found commonly on the Salarian homeworld Sur'Kesh, were still standing at the base. They were raising up for many meters, looking like enormous spearheads growing from the ground, making the entire area look even more surreal and intimidating.

The first layer of the building was cleared up. A countless amount of support beams were installed around the area to prevent the parts of the building that still stood intact from collapsing.

It looked like for the short period of time Cerberus had spent here, they’d managed to do a lot of work, which made Shepard wonder how many people Cerberus still had in their ranks to pull it off. The amount of money and resources spent on the project was also difficult to calculate, and the mere thought of wasting it all on digging out reapers angried Shepard.

There was another thing fueling his anger. Over the years, the Shroud had been a lot of things. It was a facility built to stabilize the atmosphere of Tuchanka, ending the nuclear winter on the planet. Later, it was a tool Salarians used to spread the modified version of the genophage, a genetic disease that almost sterilized the krogan. Then it was also used to cure it.

The last purpose of the Shroud was to serve as the final resting place of a good friend, a person who died here almost two years ago, securing with his death a better future for the krogan race. And now Cerberus was digging around it, with no respect or knowledge, trying to destroy everything Mordin died for, what they all fought for.

The premises of the Shroud was quiet and empty. Of course, Shepard couldn’t see the majority of it from his location, but it was a logical conclusion the majority of the Cerberus soldiers had already fled the area. Still, with the commotion outside there was a good chance to be cornered, trapped in the Shroud.

"We need people on guard outside," Shepard said, nodding at two krogan hunters accompanying him, before looking around the rest of them, until his eyes stopped on both Garrus and Tali. He knew the quarian was still running a small fever and needed to stay behind, but leaving her alone wasn't a good decision. Garrus meanwhile, would have been an irreplaceable member of the team if there was enough space to pull out a sniper rifle. And while he still could do a lot of damage in a close quarter fight, it wasn’t his strongest point. "I need you to stay here as well," Shepard said addressing the two of them.

Tali eyed him suspiciously, but didn't say a word. She pulled her shotgun from behind her back, holding it in a ready position and turned away, followed by Garrus, who looked visibly relieved.

Taking his eyes off his friends, Shepard spared a single glance back at the battlefield. The destroyer was big enough to block the view, but the sounds coming from that direction was painting a full story. The cries of the dying were mixing with shots of firearms, but even they were overpowered with that unmistakable soul-wrenching screech of the reaper beam. This chaotic cacophony was reaching Shepard's ears, making his heart ache with a wish for it to stop and there was only one thing he could do to make it happen.

It took a lot of effort to force himself to ignore everything he saw and heard, but in the end, Shepard turned around and entered the Shroud.

The ground floor of it was nothing, but a mess. Technically, there wasn't even a ground floor, as the roof no longer existed above their heads and it was possible to see the sky. The floor was also covered in chunks of rock, but it looked like someone was attempting to clean most of the area, making it easier to move.

In the far corner of the premises, there was a staircase leading down under ground. The last time Shepard had been here, the entire construction was about to collapse and he hadn’t paid enough attention to tell for sure if the staircase was a new addition, or if it was here the entire time. Shepard doubted that the latter was the case, because it was a known fact the Shroud was initially designed to disperse the particles from high in the atmosphere and was airborne. Whenever the lower level came into existence, it was not a part of the original design.

The staircase led them into a long tunnel descending deep under the surface. At the end of it, their little team found themselves in a small antechamber, which didn’t even remotely resemble krogan architecture, but neither was it Salarian in design. At the same time, Shepard recognized it. He saw a place similar to it before, only a little more than a week ago, on Horizon.

The walls of the chamber were made of smooth light-silver metal, decorated with images of ancient biotic gods and people worshiping them. Besides the images, there were ancient scripts in a language long forgotten and, unlike the caves on Horizon, looked almost intact, perhaps even transcribable.

Shepard didn’t have time to study the scripts, because an annoyed voice coming from the next section, attracted his attention. "Move the terminals into the cart, we’re leaving," the voice commanded. He readied his rifle and gestured the squad to stay put, before carefully peaking over the corner.

Momentarily, Shepard’s eyes settled on a small squad of armed Cerberus troopers. He could see seven of them patrolling the large circular chamber the doorway was opening to. In the middle of the chamber stood a blond man in a lab coat. His back was turned towards the commander, so Shepard couldn’t distinguish his features, could only see the woman he was conversing with.

The woman, on the other hand, was familiar. The asari Ereba stood in front of the man, helping him load a large terminal on something that reminded him of a small mining cart. Shepard followed the tracks the cart stood on and saw them leading into the darkness of another tunnel.

"We need to retrieve the artifact too," Ereba said, "give me the key-card."

The man in the lab coat reached for his side pocket, but stopped mid gesture, looking at the asari with suspicion.

"What, you still don't trust me," Ereba rolled her eyes, "after everything I’ve done to help?"

The man sighed and pulled the card out of his pocket, holding it out for Ereba to take.

Shepard watched the asari take a step closer, her eyes lighting up with something akin anticipation, as she reached for the card. Whatever that card was opening was obviously important to Ereba, which meant he couldn’t allow her to have it.

Shepard had never considered himself to be prone to dramatic entrances, but there wasn't any need to wait any longer. Enough of their time was wasted already so he gestured his squad to follow and pointed his rifle at one of the troopers and white and orange armor as he pulled the trigger, taking him almost immediately with one burst from his rifle.

The reaction in the next room was instantaneous, the troopers started to pull their guns taking defending positions. The operative in the the lab coat turned to the commander, his eyes filled with annoyance but not surprise. Ereba’s expression, on the other hand, was the one of shock. Wide-eyed she looked at the commander, before ducking behind one of the still powered up terminals.

One of the troopers managed to hit Shepard's armor, but the projectile was stopped by the kinetic barrier, before the trooper was taken down by another burst of shots from Kaidan, while a greenish beam of energy flashed across the room, almost disintegrating a trooper next to him. The fourth Cerberus soldier fled up into the air with a burst of biotics, which came almost simultaneously from both of Shepard’s squadmates.

A rain of ammo rounds was unleashed at the commander and his squad, but they managed to dodge, hiding behind the thin, but incredibly strong walls -- Shepard doubted that the silver alloy could even be scratched by anything so small of a caliber.

It seemed there was no window in between shots for Shepard to pick out. He reached for a grenade hanging from his belt and pulled out the pin, before sliding the small blinking disc into the room. The explosion was loud, but yet muffled, which meant one of the crazy Cerberus fanatics sacrificed himself to cover the grenade. Either way, it gave them an opening to lend a few hits, taking down the remaining two troopers, allowing Shepard and his squad to finally enter the adjacent room.

"Put your hands behind your head," Shepard ordered, holding his rifle pointed at the man crouched behind the cart.

The man stood up slowly, keeping his eyes locked with Shepard’s and it was the first time the commander was able to see his face. The illumination of the room was still dim, but it was possible to distinguish many details about the operative’s features. The man looked slightly over forty, but well cared for. His dirty blond hair was neatly cut and clean, like he had a shower a few hours ago, instead of spending the entire day on the dig site under the merciless sun of Tuchanka. In general there was little the man could have been distinguishable by and looked as average as it was only possible, but the gnawing feeling of familiarity was tugging at the commander’s gut and he couldn't put a finger of why this man looked so familiar.

It didn't look like the man was armed, he had no where to go. Any suspicious movement from him was going to be resulted in the commander opening fire, but the man did not look scared. On the opposite, a slim smirk was crossing his face, like it was him holding his weapon pointed at Shepard and not versa.

“You think you’ve won,” the man smiled raising his hands, a single spark of light blinked from under the sleeve of his coat. "You think you have me cornered, that I --"

And that was when the ground shook, throwing the four of them off the balance. The lights in the underground facility blinked, some of them exploded in cascades of white and yellow sparkles. In the short confusion that followed, Shapard almost missed the man rolling up the sleeve of his coat, revealing the silver bracelet on his wrist. He aimed to shoot, to stop the man before he managed to accomplish whatever he intended, but the ground was still unstable and the projectile from the commander's weapon missed, flying centimeters away from the mans shoulder and hitting one of the panels behind him.

"I have no time for this," the man groaned, standing up from the floor and turning his head towards the part of the room Shepard couldn't see, "you three, buy me some time," the operative said. The bracelet on his wrist started to glow in a white, pulsating light.

Three krogan features stepped out of the shadows. Their eyes were open, but no recognition could've been seen in them, like they were made out of muddy glass. The closest krogan to the commander was the tallest, the oldest, with his mouth set into a vicious scrawl. Shapard recollected a moment a day earlier, when he pondered how strong the Urdnot Shaman was, it looked like now he was about to find an answer to his question.

The Shaman was followed by Shepard's new recruit and possible future diplomat of the krogan race for the Council, Uwosh, who despite everything looked more dangerous than anyone present in the room.

The third enthralled krogan almost made Shepard's blood boil in anger as it was no one else, but the second leader of the clan Urdnot and one of his close friends, Bakara. Even if Shepard had never seen her in actual combat, he for sure knew that she could perfectly handle a shotgun and had a good aim. And the knowledge of it became even more relevant after Bakara pointed her weapon at Shepard's team and pulled the trigger.

Shepard tried to roll out of the way, but his body was cooperating slower than it used to, each previous injury making itself known with a tug of pain, the joints of his legs refusing to bend properly. If there was a chance for him to get out of the way from a situation like that a few years back, in the present he was simply not fast enough.

A blue field of biotic energy stopped the shot, and the commander felt strong hands tugging him backwards into the hallway, but at that moment the Shaman started to charge and Shepard realized the mistake of such a retreat. The room they returned too was small and was followed by a very narrow corridor, which gave too little room to manoeuvre. A condition like that was making an incoming krogan charge deadly, instead of simply dangerous.

Another flash of blue bursted out of Kaidan's palm, making the Shaman stop on his tracks, unmovable. The old krogan froze in place right in the doorway, which blocked the charges of the other two, buying Shepard’s team several priceless seconds.

It gave enough time for Shepard to finally return into a standing position, but the fact he was capable to do it only with Javik's help didn't make him proud. He took a deep breath, trying to calm the ringing in his ears. On the corner of his eye, he noticed his husband breathing hard, his face covered in sweat. It looked like the biotic was starting to exhaust his energy too.

And they managed to take down only one out of the three krogans.

"We can't simply kill them," Kaidan breathed out moving another step backwards, "we need to retreat back to the --"

Kaidan's proposition was cut short as Uwosh was finally able to push the Shaman out of the way and started to move towards them in a slow, but sure pace and, for some reason, it looked even more intimidating than if she would've been charging.

Shepard looked at Kaidan who clenched his jaw and send another burst of energy at the incoming krogan. She froze for merely a second, before her own eyes sparked bright blue and she shuttered the stasis lock, as if it was simply a case of glass around her body, starting to advance faster.

The last several meters she bursted into a run, aiming her charge on the person who was causing the more inconvenience. Kaidan managed to move out of the way the last second, ducking behind a row of metal crates by the wall, but the maneuver left him cornered in the smaller room without the means of retreating in either direction.

The situation became even more dire as he saw Bakara finally appearing on the scene, slamming Javik into one of the walls and grabbing him by the throat.

He wriggled around, maneuvering his leg between Bakara’s feet and kicking the krogan into the chin with a tip of his metal boot. There was a quiet, but distinguishable krack of a bone echoing through the air and Bakara faltered, letting go of the prothean, but never retreated.

Shapard hated the idea of harming them, but at that moment he had little choice. He couldn't stand the thought of neither his husband, nor his friend being killed. He asked a mental apology from the krogan, aiming his rifle at Uwosh legs with an intent to cripple the krogan, but before he could pull a trigger, a large gray shadow passed before him, jumping straight on Bakara and knocking her down to the floor.

Another roar sounded from the direction of the small corridor leading to the surface and, at the same time with another flash of biotics from Kaidan, Grunt jumped out from the dark colliding head first with Bakara’s side, before both went flying into the air, caught into a singularity field.

"No-one dare to harm them!" Shepard heard Wrex before the leader of Urdnot himself appeared in the room, followed by a joint krogan-turian force.

The tides finally turned in their favor and Shepard used the distraction to rush into the adjacent room. With most of the lights on the ceiling out, it became difficult to see the majority of the premises. The hum of disabled electronic subsided and it was also quieter in here, the silence disturbed only be the sounds of the combat behind the commander’s back.

The blond Cerberus operative was long gone together with the majority of the computer terminals, and the only person besides Shepard left in the room was his little asari assistant, who payed little attention to her surroundings, working on a panel. Shepard followed the set of heavy cables coming from the panel with his eyes and noticed them to be connected to a large metal door on the side of the chamber.

"Step away from the console," Shepard ordered, his rifle aimed at Ereba.

The asari spared him a single glance, but continued her work, "please, commander, I need to open this door, the stupid bastard took the key," she said almost indifferently, but Shepard couldn't miss the note of desperation in her voice.

There were many reasons for Ereba to be desperate right now. Being at the point of a rifle was one of them. Shepard couldn’t allow her to finish opening the door, because for what he knew, there could've been anything behind it, starting from an Atlas ending with yet another reaper. "I repeat the last time, Ereba, stand down, don't make me do something both of us will regret," he said as he slowly started to walk closer.

Ereba looked at Shepard once again and shook her head, her fingers working nimbly and fast over the holographic consol, "there is a leviathan sphere in that room," she explained fast, as if reading the commander's mind, "I’m not sure how, but Cerberus used it as a signal boost for their bracelet. I've spent almost a week trying to convince those guys I was on their side only too get to it. If I can, this entire madness can be stopped."

Shepard's grip on the rifle faltered as he heard what asari said, but it was too small of a motion to be noticed in the dimly lit chamber. He wanted to believe Ereba, wanted to trust her, but cornered as she was, she could as easily be lying to him, trying to unleash some sort of a last resort weapon. On the other hand, Shepard knew how much more powerful the leviathan spheres were, and if Cerberus in fact had managed to combine their ancient technology with the reaper bracelets, it could explain how they managed to control the entire krogan city at once.

A gray varren with large blue eyes appeared in the room. He ran to Ereba, happily wagging his tail and sat at her feet, moving his gaze curiously at the commander to Ereba and back, his large pink tongue hanging loosely from the side of his mouth. After a single distressed bark-like sound aimed at the commander, Urz started to rub his head against Ereba's leg.

Shepard watched the two of them surprised, blinking a few times for a good measure, just in case he was seeing things. He sighed then, lowering his gun, "great, I'm trusting a word of a varren," he said.

Ereba glanced at him yet again and smiled gently, "it is smarter move than you think," she chuckled, "varren never lie."

There was a sound of heavy steps behind Shepard's back and the commander turned to see almost the entirety of his ground team, together with Wrex entering the chamber. Their postures were rigid, their guns out and ready to fire at whatever enemy was going to appear, but seeing Shepard and Ereba conversing quietly, every single one of them, like a flipping of a figurative switch, relaxed visibly, holstering their weapons, which folded into more compact forms with a round of soft clicks.

"Well, I have a good news and a bad one, which one you want me to start with," said Wrex.

The krogan looked tired and annoyed, covered in sooth and splotches of dried blood, but surprisingly content, which could only mean that his bad news didn't include an almost extermination of his entire clan, nor his mate being seriously injured. Besides, the mere idea that Wrex had something to say which he considered to be a good news could only mean that the weight of their struggles was now put behind and they only had minor problems to deal with.

Shepard didn't really care which news the krogan was going to start with, because in the end he was going to hear them both, "well, I see you're here," he said instead, "I guess your good news is about Cerberus and the reaper being dealt with?" Shepard guessed.

Wrex groaned through his teeth and mumbled something about pyjaks, progeny and excrements, the meaning of which Shepard could guess with ease, without even hearing the full extend of this miniature speech, "well, Cerberus is cleared out, and none of my people are now in immediate danger, except that they are still behaving like a pack of creepers," he said as he approached the commander, standing on the side of him and watching Ereba continuing her attempts to crack the security code, "but the reaper got out," he added after a short pause.

It took almost a second for Shepard's brain to catch up with the statement. "What?" he surprised. There was an echo of the question repeated simultaneously by Ereba, who stopped her every movement, looking at Wrex with fear and almost desperation.

"I suppose, we at least bought us some time, then," she shook her head.

Shepard raised an eyebrow as he looked at asari. Whatever she was talking the truth or not, she definitely knew a lot about Cerberus plan. The commander had many questions he was desperate to ask, but it was not the time, nor place to conduct a full interrogation, so he started to first go through the most important ones.

"Was getting a hold on a reaper that important to them?" He asked.

Ereba was silent for a moment, as if contemplating, "this particular cell of Cerberus didn't have much information about their general plan," she said finally, "but according to what I've gathered, they need an intact copy of reaper programming to be able to duplicate it," she then fell silent again and averted her eyes, her expression worried, "I think they are trying to bring them back," she whispered.

A cold shiver ran down the commanders spine. Every sound seized to exist in the room, as if everyone present stopped still, too afraid to even breathe.

Shepard wasn't even sure if what Ereba said was possible, but he knew Cerberus too well, to agree it was something they could attempt, and perhaps even find a way to do. He looked around the chamber. He saw the blocks after blocks of terminals, hundreds of zettabytes of data which was enough space to hold an advanced AI, but for the first time he truly noticed them.

Most of those blocks were gone now.

"Oh no," Ereba shook her head as she noticed the direction of Shepard's gaze, "even if they had time to fully uploaded the programming, which they didn't, I managed to add a few little changes to it, invisible, undetectable. In fact, I had hoped they'd get it all and attempt to integrate into their systems, which would have set their efforts back dramatically. That is until you showed up," she sighed.

Shepard rolled his eyes. It was a rare occasion that the saved party complained about being rescued, in fact, he thought it was the first time in his military career, he was accused of interfering with grand plans of defeating the enemy by doing his job.

There was another problem with Ereba's explanation, the one Shepard didn't have time to think about until Kaidan's remark: "I wasn't aware it was so easy to edit their programs," he said, a note of sarcasm clear in his voice.

Ereba looked at the major and nodded once, smiling gently, "I was taught how to do it, as well as I was protected from the indoctrinating properties of their devices," she explained simply, like she was ready to answer that particular question, "by the creatures who both know how to realize Cerberus’ plans and desperately want to stop them," she said as she straightened up above the console. The holographic projection above the flat metal surface now turned green and Ereba pushed the last button.

The airlock door clicked several times before the two large panels it was composed of moved apart with a hiss. A dirty brown myst swam out of the room, making the commander to wriggle his nose in disgust of how awful it smelled. It was like everything the commander didn't like combined in one to create the most repulsive fragrance. Behind the door there was nothing but a small empty room, with only a single pedestal-like construction in the very middle of it.

Above the pedestal was floating an orb, Shepard had seen many times before, but it was different at the same time. Instead of dark and deep blue and silver, it looked almost red in color, as if someone filled it with blood. The myst the room seemed to be filled with was coming from the artifact and no matter how ominous the entire picture looked, no matter how repulsive it smelt, Shepard couldn't shake off a feeling that he needed to take a step closer, to touch the orb.

"Cerberus is building something, something powerful and the Leviathans are the only ones who possess knowledge about it," Ereba’s voice all but echoed somewhere in Shepard's consciousness, like she was somewhere far away, but spoke directly into his mind, "but they cut the connection with any orb, unwilling to risk Cerberus tracking them to their location, talking to only people they had chosen to trust."

The voice of the asari sounded more and more unclear, instead the other voices started to replace it, the ones which sounded cold but familiar and welcoming. Like a beacon on a dark night they were luring the commander into the embrace of their promises, showing him places frightening, but important to reach at the same time.

Before his eyes, pictures of the events he witnessed, places he had been started to appear, but among them were places and events he could not recall. All of the images were blurry, impossible to distinguish and Shepard desperately wanted to look closer, to see them in more detail. He made an unsure step, reaching for the orb with his hand, wondering when did he have time to move so close to the artifact.

Then everything went black. A sound of gunfire pierced the air and Shepard felt himself falling to the floor.

The next time he opened his eyes, he found himself half sitting on the ground, leaning on another person, who held him gently up. Shepard looked down and saw familiar white stripes on blue background armor. One of the hands which held him was wrapped tightly around Shepard's torso, while the other laid awkwardly next on the floor, a pistol clutched in a sure grip. The commander looked up from the gun towards the pedestal and saw nothing but a pile of broken, crystal clear pieces scattered over its metal surface.

He then raised his eyes to look at the face of the man who held him.

Kaidan's face was flushed red and Shepard suspected it was mostly due to adrenaline, than anything else. Droplets of sweat was rolling down his forehead, making his fringe dump with perspiration. His breath was fast and uneven, as he watched the commander closely, a look of almost panic on his face.

"I... I'm sorry," he exhaled, "I had to do it."

It took Shepard several moment to realize what Kaidan was talking about, but when he did a confusing mix of anger and relief rushed through him. He pondered about arguing, but didn't see a point. Wanted to thank him then, but the words escaping his mouth didn't sound like anything he originally planned to tell.

"You're my shield," he whispered so quietly, that he wasn't sure even Kaidan heard it.

***

It was rather surprising how much more welcoming the conference room in the Urdnot capital looked during sunset. The pinkish-yellow rays were flowing into the large chamber, softening the color of the rough bricks and dark wood. Even the paintings of ancient battles with Rachni and thresher maws depicted above the gallery of windows didn't look as grand and intimidating as the day before.

Yet, Shepard suspected, it was also due to the exhaustion which lead to a mood of indifference, which made the atmosphere in the room seem less strict and professional, turning it into something that reminded him of a strange variation of a sleepover party than a political meeting.

The loses of the Urdnot clan were fever than they predicted, but more than they hoped to avoid, still the whole ordeal felt more of a success than anything. A lot of young krogan were lost in a day, even more hunters and warriors, but Wrex seemed content with the situation, so Shepard decided not to dwell on it either.

The attitude to death on Tuchanka was different enough to perhaps never be understood by another race.

The three krogan they had to fight earlier that day had been apprehended before any one of them could be seriously injured. The only one who suffered the most was Bakara, whose ankle was fractured, but it looked like the only thing she was experiencing now was a minor discomfort and mostly because Shepard insisted her leg to be examined by Sonars.

Shepard was also worried that Wrex was going to be more concerned about the condition of his mate, that he would be a little more wrathful towards Javik who injured her, but the leader of Urdnot only grinned and praised the prothean's kick that was strong enough to crack a krogan's dense bone. What made the situation even more strange, that Bakara herself was agreeing with Wrex and seemed sincere in her claims.

The attitude to injury on Tuchanka was as different as the one for death and Shepard suspected that it was another reason the cultural barrier between their races was so thick.

Now they all were lounging in the room, tired to the point of almost forgetting any procedures that followed ranks and statuses. It also seemed that everyone was on the verge of falling asleep right there, if not for the fact some matters were not yet settled.

"And what if she's lying?" Uwosh groaned, her eyes not moving away from Ereba, her gaze full of anger, but her body language calm, calculated.

The asari was sitting in the furthest corner of the room, under one of the windows which faced the main square, looking unimpressed. "I've presented my case several times," she said, "I tried to do everything to protect the people of this planet like my husband would do, would want me to do. Krogan are my people now, it is my and my daughter's home now. The only reason I was there, pretending to help them was to sabotage their plans."

As if to prove her point, Urz groaned quietly and nuzzled Ereba's knee, making Shepard feel tingle of childish jealousy, as if his pet was preferring to play with someone else. This kind of emotion was absolutely inappropriate for the situation and he was doing everything to ignore it.

"A good question," he still nodded to Uwosh, he did believe Ereba’s good intentions, even if her actions seemed reckless to the commander, but he still needed to see how Uwosh could handle situations like this, if she was capable for a role she agreed to, "what do you propose to solve this?" he asked.

Uwosh was steadily moving her eyes from the asari to the commander and back. "If it was solely my decision, I would advise killing her just in case," she shrugged. She paused and sighed then, "but should anything happen to her, the asari councilor would do everything to make our life more difficult," she said, "she needs to be either sent back to Illium, or to the Citadel, or --" she paused once more, her eyebrows narrowing, before she stood up from the chair she was occupying and moved towards Ereba.

Shepard watched the wordless exchange between the two of them as Uwosh was standing silently above the asari, looking her in the eyes. A moment later Uwosh’s facial expression changed into a wide grin, and the krogan turned her head around towards Wrex and Bakara, "I request to enlist her, as my personal assistant, for the trial period of one hundred standard Galactic years. She will be my advisor in a matter of interspecies etiquette and interactions."

Shepard felt his jaw dropping slowly as he couldn't believe what he heard. Ereba looked like she had a similar experience, staring at Uwosh in awe and disbelief.

"The council is bound to see it as our attempt at keeping peaceful relationship with other species, while I personally will be able to keep an eye on a potential traitor," Uwosh continued meanwhile.

Wrex watched the hunter curiously, but then shrugged, "Well, she was useful here," he said, "But if you want to take her, do it. I don't particularly care."

On that, Shepard could not hold back a wide grin. If he had any doubt left about Uwosh’s abilities as a diplomat, now he lost any trace of them.

***

"You sure you don't want to stay any longer?" asked Grunt, who followed Shepard down the long corridor leading towards the landing pads.

It was still the same evening, and the commander felt like he was about to fall over of exhaustion, but they needed to set the course on the Citadel to speak with the council in person to report what they knew about Cerberus’ plans so far. A warning about a runaway Destroyer also seemed like a matter to warn them in person. Shepard doubted a reaper of the smallest built, and damaged so heavily, was going to be a problem on its own, but Cerberus was still out there for its full programming, so they needed to locate it before their enemies could.

Plus, after two missions in a row on planets that could not supply them with provisions, the shelves of the _Normandy'_ s kitchen was in a dire need of restocking.

"I wish," Shepard replied honestly, "but I need to be on my way, Cerberus isn't going to defeat itself, you know," he added with a chuckle, "why not to join me instead?" Shepard asked.

"Right, cause the moment Cerberus sees me in your squad, they bout to piss their pants and die in fear. Would save us lots of ammunition," Grunt laughed. His face turned a little more serious then, "I’m rebuilding Aralakh Company, I can’t. But you should be glad Uwosh is joining you, she'll fight for the two of us," he said, his intonation turning wistful, "she's a best damn thing that happened to me. Well, besides you releasing me from that tank. And us killing that thresher maw. And maybe that one time when we blew up the Collector's base," he then fidgeted from foot to another, "well, but she's close to the best."

Shepard laughed at that loud enough to turn several heads of the krogan they passed on the way, "you got it that bad for her, huh?" he asked.

"Heh," Grunt nodded, "out first meeting ended with me being hospitalized for almost a week, so yeah, I think it was predestined. Or something like that," he shook his head then, "anyway, I think she will be a better ambassador than I was."

On that Shepard raised his eyebrow, "yeah, I heard something about it" he said, "what did you do to piss everyone off?"

Grunt only shrugged, "ah, you know," he said as a matter of fact, "salarian dalatrass was annoying, so I punched her. You never guess how far those frogs can fly when motivated," he smirked cracking the knuckles of his hand, "I mean, no need to worry, she only ended up with some bruises," Grunt added hastily.

For just a moment, Shepard imagined the situation. He knew it was wrong, even if he suspected that for once it wasn't the krogan's fault, as the dalatrass was one of the few people in the galaxy who could push even a saint into violence. "I wish I could've seen it," he said, then immediately realized that it wasn't a kind of example a krogan youth should receive from a grown up civilized man, "I mean, it was wrong, Grunt," he corrected himself.

This time it was Grunt's turn to laugh, "that is why I like you, Shepard," he said.

They passed another turn and found themselves out in the open area of a rather large terrace, where their Kodiak was waiting to pick them up.

A turian shuttle was standing nearby. Next to it, Shepard saw the primarch conversating calmly with Wrex. It was unusual to see the two of them in a civilized setting. In fact, if Shepard didn't know better, it looked almost like the leader of Urdnot and the turian primarch were successfully working together for decades, instead of being at each-other throats merely a day earlier.

"You know, you’re not too bad for a turian," Shepard heard Wrex saying.

"You're not so bad for a krogan then, I guess," Victus replied with a nod, "can be civil from time to time," he smirked then, offering the krogan his hand.

Wrex gave Victus a firm nod and reached to shake it.

It was a good turn of the events to watch people so different, separated by hundreds years of historical hatred, making yet another step to breaking away from the past. It made Shepard feel something akin to pride, but purer, warmer. It was a strange emotion, but one that was almost enough to convince Shepard that he could accomplish anything.

 

 


	34. Chapter 34

The large screen which occupied the entirety of the glass stand in the captain's quarters was lit, tinting the sleeping area of the room with a soft orange undertone.

Shepard was sitting on the foot of the bed, staring at the screen for at least half an hour, trying to place together every piece of the puzzle Cerberus had created. He knew that he still, even after two weeks of running around and gathering clues, didn't have enough information about what Cerberus had in store for them. The last bit of information they received from Ereba about their goal to bring back the Reapers was frightening and sounded very plausible, knowing what kind of knowledge and technology Cerberus had an access to.

Cerberus was also building something, something massive and no-one yet knew what kind of device it was and if it was needed to complete the process of resurrection of the most terrifying enemy the galaxy had ever faced, or if it served some other purpose.

Shepard knew, that he wasn't likely to find all of the answers now, yet he carefully catalogued every observation about suspicious activities he witnessed in the past couple of weeks, spreading them carefully around the board of the screen, trying to find any connections between them. He marked everything that was coming to his mind, every little detail, starting from the cloning experiments and the biotically enhanced wheat that could turn back and forward the growth of its cells under the influence of the mass effect field, ending with the spying bugs found at the Alliance headquarters and the _Normandy_. Everything that could possible be a part of Cerberus plan went onto the board.

A soft touch on his back pulled Shepard out of his concentration. He turned his head slightly and saw Kaidan still stretched over his side of the bed looking at him from half-lidded eyes. Most of Kaidan was still covered with a blanket and only his head and a single leg, which he stretched out to rub Shepard’s back with his forefoot, were poking out of the covers.

"Watcha doin?" he asked, his voice still groggy with sleep, every word cramped together in a first attempt at speech in the morning.

"Working," Shepard replied simply, not even trying to hide amused adoration from his voice.

Kaidan turned his head to look at the watch which stood on the nightstand and groaned, "at five hundred?" he asked.

"We went to bed early last night," Shepard replied.

It was a half-truth. Exhausted from the events of the previous day, both of them reached the captain's quarters and had only a little strength left for some on-a-fly cold sandwiches and a quick shower, before both of them stumbled onto the bed and fell asleep like two fallen logs, while it had only been slightly over twenty one hundred.

During the last year of life away from the military regime and schedule, Shepard had grown to appreciate an occasional extra hour of sleep, but for the last two weeks, since he returned to the active duty, pain was waking him up more often than not, which was another half of the reason, but the one he didn't mention to Kiadan.

Kaidan looked at Shepard with suspicion, but then yawned and Shepard could see Kaidan's eyes moving from his face to look behind him, on the screen. He studied it for a moment, then snorted, "coffee from a dispenser machine on the Citadel tasted funny? Is that your idea of Cerberus devious plotting?" he asked.

"Well," Shepard replied with a shrug, "bringing a hero down by giving him an indigestion. Sounds like Cerberus level of deviousness to me."

Kaidan tittered at the joke before his face turned serious again.

Shepard had waited for that change of mood since yesterday, when they returned from the mission. He expected Kaidan to bring up everything that happened on Tuchanka, had to give him some explanations. Shepard admonished himself mentally for that line of thought, because he didn't _have_ to do anything, didn't have to explain himself to Kaidan, but he needed to, if not for Kaidan, at least for himself, to find some solace in the other man's support.

The only problem was, that he didn't have much of an explanation, had no idea what everything meant. He sure couldn't tell Kaidan about his implants being powering up and down each time he was being contacted, because that information would be the final straw before they were either going to have a fight or Kaidan pressed the issue upon the Alliance brass, in which case not only would Shepard end up in trouble, but Doctor Sonars, who broke the protocol by not reporting Shepard's condition, as well.

Saving the Galaxy was only going to get one so far, before the higher ups would finally become fed up with Shepard’s less-than-standard approaches.

Shepard realized that now he had dug a hole so deep for himself, that it was going to be difficult to climb out. The only reason he continued to remain silent was that he was absolutely certain about his ability to finish the mission, by which time he'd rescue the girl from Cerberus, make sure she was safe and then would be ready to face any music.

Shepard turned to face Kaidan fully, reaching for his poking out of the cover leg, placing his hand on the other man's knee. He wondered if he first needed to give Kaidan time to get up and dress, as their current tactical positions were placing Kaidan at a disadvantage, but decided against it. Not only did he know that neither of them could care less about the state of undress in front of each-other, he also felt like taking any little advantage for such conversation.

"I wanted to thank you again for pulling my ass out of that room with the sphere," Shepard said, trying to start on a brighter note.

"Do you think it was a bad thing you destroyed the Reapers?" Kaidan asked at the same exact moment.

Shepard blinked. He stared at Kaidan for a moment, trying to determine if what he heard was right or if his mind was playing a trick. He mentally repeated the words that reached his ears, but they hadn't changed, hadn't acquired another meaning besides what they actually meant.

He waited then for any indication from Kaidan's side about his question being some sort of a bad joke, looking into the depth of his whiskey eyes, but his husband reminded calm, serious, waiting for Shepard's response.

Finally Shepard realized that he was silent for too long, that Kaidan expected him to give an answer of some sort. "What?" he asked still confused.

"You heard me," Kaidan shrugged, "do you think if was a bad thing, do you think humanity, or the entire galaxy for that matter, could’ve benefited from having them around?"

Shepard swallowed and withdrew his hand from Kaidan's knee, before slowly starting to stand up from the bed, keeping his eyes locked with the other man, "you can't be serious," he shook his head, "how can you even --" he paused trying to figure out what he wanted to say, how could Kaidan think that? How he could ask a question like that?

He turned his head away, starting to pace in front on the bed, not sure why Kaidan was asking that, out of the blue, because among the questions Shepard expected him to ask, this one wasn't even on the list.

He felt a strange tingle of familiarity, like if he had this argument before. He remembered his initial guilt, his own inner monologues a few weeks after waking up in the hospital after the war ended. He realized that he'd asked himself the same thing, and the answer he found then hadn't changed with time.

"I was given a choice, I stand by it now," he said, "there were nothing they could’ve given us worth the sacrifices we had to make, nor had I any right to rewrite the entire course of evolution."

Kaidan's serious expression softened and the other man exhaled deeply, visibly relaxing, "thank god," he muttered closing his eyes and bringing both of his hands to rub his face.

Shepard stared at his husband, trying to understand the sudden swings of mood. Only a moment later it finally clicked in, "you thought I was indoctrinated?" he asked in disbelief.

Kaidan looked at Shepard with one eye poking out between his fingers, "you keep hearing voices in your head, you was the only one hypnotized by that damned sphere," he sad, "it makes a guy wonder, you know."

Shepard sighed moving back towards the foot of the bed, flopping back down on the mattress. He opened his mouth once, but unable to find words closed it again. He thought about the notion for a moment, if Kaidan's fear had any basis, but found none. Yes, he was engaged with the mission too much, but his reasons were clear to him.

"Kaidan," he whispered looking distantly at the floor beneath his still bare feet, "no, I'm not indoctrinated, if it is what you fear, but I can see how did you come to the conclusion," he said finally. He thought about his next words for another moment before proceeding, "I have a lot of dreams lately, nightmares even. I didn't think much about them at first, but I dunno," he shook his head, "I know that someone, or something was trying to contact me, like a sending a direct message to my brain, but I'm unsure who."

He spared a single glance at his husband, but there wasn't a single note of surprise there, like if he’d already known it all and had been patiently waiting for Shepard to confess the entire time. "You have a guess, tho, don't you?" Kaidan asked instead.

"Only a guess," Shepard nodded, "I keep seeing this place, an empty planet with a large blue moon in the sky, I see a woman there calling for me. We know almost nothing about the girl Cerberus had cloned, but I can't stop wondering, maybe it's her?"

The moment he mentioned the girl, Shepard saw Kaidan tense a little. There was a pause in the response from the other man, until Kaidan sighed deeply, "you think they modified something in the girl, installed some sort of implant?"

The question Kaidan asked now was easier to answer, as Shepard had time to think about it many times before. "No," he shook his head, "we took her for a med exam, remember? If she had any mechanical implants, they'd find it, but she had none."

"Then how can she do it? Something like rachni communication among their kind?"

"That was what I thought at first," Shepard agreed, "but Sonars figured my own implants are connected to it somehow."

Shepard realized what he said before he could think about it. It was a mistake to mention the doctor. Kaidan still wasn't on speaking terms with her even after more than a week of them traveling together. She spoke to him as much as it was necessary for the mission acting strict and professional, but otherwise was averting casual communications and Kaidan still couldn't say why for sure. Plus, by mentioning Sonars, Shepard implied that he spoke about it to someone else before him.

The only thing Kaidan gave in reply was a short 'huh', but he didn't press the issue further.

Then he started to get up, moving the blankets away. He moved closer to Shepard, taking a seat next to him on the foot of the bed, "or someone else is trying to get into your brain," he said after a moment, "have you thought about it?"

Shepard did. He thought about it on several occasions, but no matter how much it looked like a trap, he refused to believe it, "I'm trying to remain positive," he said.

"Your understanding of positive is seriously screwed up."

This time it was Shepard's turn to titter. "Well, you know me," he said.

"That I do," Kaidan replied with a sigh.

They sat in silence for some time. Shepard leaned on his husband, wrapping his arm over the other man and placing his head on his shoulder, inhaling the smell of soap on his skin. He expected Kaidan to be relaxed, to lean back on him perhaps, but the other man was tence, unresponsive, cold even. It alerted Shepard, making nerves tingle in the pit of his stomach.

“Kaidan,” Shepard tried as he leaned in to kiss him.

“No, not now,” Kaidan moved away starting to untangle himself from Shepard’s embrace and stand up, “I can’t think straight right now, just... what the hell?” he asked surprised, as he finally turned to face Shepard, but his gaze moved somewhere past him.

Shepard turned his head, following the direction of Kaidan's eyes and his own gaze fell onto a brand new fixture of the captain's quarters. A massive dog-shaped creature of gray color with purple stripes covering its neck, back and thick tail, whom Shepard distantly remembered leaving in the cargo hold the night before, was now comfortably couched on Shepard's side of the bed.

Yesterday, when they all were returning to the ship, Urz followed them the entire way to the landing pads and attempted to load on the shuttle. Shepard ended up 'recruiting' the varren on a mission as an official military working dog, he even requested to forward him the paperwork he needed to fill out to make it happen. He wasn't going to mention to anyone that it was mostly Urz who recruited himself. No-one among the crew had believed Urz was granted a permission to stay simply because of his usefulness either.

Sensing the attention of the both men turned to him, Urz' tail started to wag, thumping loudly at the surface of the mattress.

"Umm," Shepard said, "he sort of came here last night and I thought it was too much bother to kick him out."

"Right," Kaidan nodded, his intonation sceptical, "I didn't know varren could operate elevators."

"Well, this one is smart," Shepard shrugged; the tail swaps intensified the moment Shepard mentioned it.

Kaidan rolled his eyes, "well, I'm not picking up scales from the bedsheets," he said, shaking his head. He leaned down and placed a single kiss on Shepard's temple, before moving towards the locker with clothes and pulling up a clean uniform from it. "You have a message, by the way," he added before turning around and walking casually towards the bathroom.

Shepard's eyes followed Kaidan the entire way, until the other man disappeared behind the metal door. He still looked upset and slightly hurt and Shepard’s entire being screamed at him to follow, to grab him by the hand, turn him around and talk to him, explain everything to him, until there wouldn’t be a place left for misunderstanding between them, but he didn’t know what to say. The other part of him screamed to follow Kaidan into the bathroom and make love to him there until Kaidan would forget all the reasons for being upset, but it felt too low to use sex as means of influence. There was nothing Shepard could do right now without making it worse, so instead he turned his attention to his private terminal, where a small green light was blinking brightly in the dusky corner of the room.

With a sigh Shepard stood from the bed again, walking slowly to his working desk to check what was needed from him. Almost fifty new messages had arrived in the short period of time he'd spent on Tuchanka, most of which were junk or good wishes from people whom he either didn't know or barely remembered meeting.

At the very beginning, after waking up from the coma, he was trying his very best to politely reply on each fan mail that he received. At the time the count of those mails was in thousands, but stuck in a hospital, he had a lot of free time to spare. Soon, the task of replying had become almost impossible, so instead he asked Specialist Traynor to get him a program that would sort through the correspondence, replying automatically on each mail with a simple text explaining that there was no way he could do it on his own.

The program worked miracles, but occasionally some of that correspondence was still leaking to his main message folder.

Just to make sure, he scrolled through each letter anyway, until his eyes stopped on a familiar name. He opened the letter from Ann, reading through several lines a few times, not quite believing what he saw.

Shepard didn't forget her, he remembered Ann helping him to locate the Leviathans, he remembered that she once had one of the spheres. According to the Alliance database he had an access to, the sphere in question didn't survive the events after the final push in London. It looked like either the database contained the incorrect information, or it was Ann lying to the Alliance.

Never the less, Ann having an access to the sphere, was a convenience. The sphere on Tuchanka was now destroyed and without the researcher’s help, getting a hold on another one was going to take days if not weeks. It looked like at least something along of their mission was finally going Shepard's way.

***

The door to Liara's quarters opened before Shepard had time to knock and the commander almost collided with Javik.

"Commander," the prothean nodded and Shepard noticed he seemed distressed, like he was in hurry to get away from the view, to hide in his own private room on the engineering deck.

"Everything allright?" Shepard asked.

Javik looked at Shepard almost angrily, before glancing backwards at the already closed door behind him, shaking his head, "I," he sighed, "it is not the kind of matter I wish to talk about," he said, yet he was almost fidgeting on his feet, like he indeed wanted to talk.

It wasn't the best moment to press the issue, or more likely it wasn't the best place, as the two of them stood in the earsight of several people finishing their dinners in the mess hall. Plus, Liara had called Shepard about ten minutes earlier and he promised to come see her as soon as he had time. "Are you sure?" Shepard asked anyway crossing his hands over his chest.

Javik looked at the commander, disbelief reading clearly in all four of his eyes. It felt like the prothean was scanning Shepard for something only he could see. Shepard expected to be called a primitive yet again, but to his surprise, Javik only shook his head and stepped around the commander to free the way to Liara's quarters. "She might not be in the mood right now," he warned.

"Thanks for the heads up, I guess," Shepard replied to Javik's back as the prothean didn’t waste a single moment and started to walk away.

It wasn’t the strangest interaction Shepard had with the prothean, but it made him stop for a moment and think if he should give Liara a little privacy and return later. On the other hand, she was the one who called him, so the commander shrugged and opened the door, stepping into the revealed room.

Liara was standing next to the row of computer monitors, leaning on the table with both of her hands. She was looking at one of the monitors like if reading something, but the pupils of her eyes weren't moving, which told Shepard that she was deep in her thoughts. She didn't even notice the door opening and the commander stepping in, until Glyph's cheerful voice greeted him.

She turned her head and smiled gently, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you," she said.

"It's ok," Shepard replied as he moved further into the room, ignoring the floating ball of light that was Liara's personal VI, which followed the commander bouncing up and down in the air. Well, at least something on the ship was in a good mood, Shepard thought. "You wanted to talk to me?" He asked then turning his attention back to Liara.

She nodded picking up a datapad from the table, unlocking it's screen, "it is about the writings we found on the walls in Cerberus facilities," she said, "Ereba was able to locate some information to decipher the text among the files Cerberus has left in the facility, I think I was able to translate some of it."

Everything Cerberus was interested in, was a top priority for their mission, so Shepard assigned the translation of the scripts to Liara immediately after they left Horizon. So far any attempt to find a language similar to the one depicted on the walls in the underground facilities was unsuccessful. It looked like it was a lost cause until now.

"So, what were you able to find?" Shepard asked with a sigh. He moved even closer to the table, taking a seat in one of the two chairs next to it.

“I'm not sure how this information could be of interest to Cerberus, as it is basically something like an old legend, a fairy-tale if you wish, one it is difficult to take seriously."

"Well, if Cerberus thinks it is important, that there must be some truth to it," Shepard shrugged.

Liara nodded once before continuing, "perhaps you are right," she agreed, "anyway, it is a story of a very old god, which came from a cycle even before the protheans appeared in the galaxy. It tells that once there was a man, who was called Ehtia. This deity was playing with life and time, changing the events of past and future in an attempt to create an ideal universe. The more  Entia changed, the more powerful he became, but he never could change enough to be satisfied with his creation. One day came the giants, their number filled the sky, they saw Ehtia's powers and became jealous, they tricked the god and stole his powers."

Shepard waited for Liara to continue, but realized it was the end of the story. "Was it all you were able to translate?" he asked.

"No, not really," Liara replied, "there are some details that I'm missing, but none of them seems like any information we could use."

Shepard reached for the datapad Liara held out for him and read through the text several more times. He recollected his own clue board in the captain's quarters, trying to piece where this old story could fit. Similar to any other clue he already had, it looked like total garbage.

"Well, the sky giants were the Reapers, I'm pretty sure of it," he finally exhaled dropping the datapad on the table, "so the story might be real at least to one extent. Do you think you can translate more?" he asked.

"Only if you really think that over exaggerated descriptions of nature would be of any help," she sighed and picked the datapad again. Her eyes fell onto the small screen, but yet again, it looked like she wasn't really paying attention to it.

Shepard waited a moment, before he was forced to clear his throat, breaking her out from her thoughts, "Liara?" he called.

She blinked several times, startled, before shaking her head, "sorry, I'm just a little distracted," she said.

Shepard knew the reason of Liara's distraction, he saw him exiting her quarters a few minutes earlier. He didn't really want this conversation to turn into a discussion about relationships, but if he could support his friend in any way, he was at least going to try. The moment he thought about turning their conversation into that direction, he realized that it was something he needed too, needed someone close to distract himself from his own issues,  "did you and Javik have a fight?" he asked.

Liara closed her eyes leaning on the backrest of the chair and shook her head, the datapad forgotten in her hand "I don't know," she confessed, "I'm not even sure what is going on anymore. I know he is interested, I saw it in his head, and I can see him making attempts to become closer, but each time he makes a step forward, he withdraws and runs away. Literally sometimes," she shrugged as she looked at the door.

Shepard rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers, "have you ever confronted him about it?" he asked.

Liara lowered her gaze to look at the floor, "I did," she said, "just now. He almost tripped on Glyph as he was exiting my quarters."

Both of them fell quiet, sitting in absolute silence distracted only by the quiet hum of the engines and the terminals in Liara's room, lost in their own thoughts.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure how to proceed from here," Shepard confessed finally. When he said it, he wasn't even sure if he talked about Javik or Kaidan.

He did expect understanding from his husband when he tried talking to him earlier, but his understanding was too cold to be comforting. On the other hand it wasn't like he could blame Kaidan for it. "Sometimes it looks like everything is slowly going to hell," Shepard continued, "but our minds are known to exaggerate when it comes to people we truly care about, everything even slightly negative from them seems multiplied at times, because we always believe them to never hurt us, even unintentionally. The truth is, the closer you're to someone, the better you will know someone, the more bad sides you're going to see. It is hard work to keep going," Shepard shrugged, a small smile sneaked into his face, "but it's worth it," he concluded.

Liara smiled then, looking at the commander with her big eyes, "you want to say it's going to get worse, before it's going to get better?" She asked.

"I hope not," Shepard chuckled in reply.

"That bad?" She raised her eyebrow curiously.

Shepard blinked, realizing he was caught and cleared his throat, "if by worse, you mean Javik starting to blow holes in the _Normandy_ 's haul each time you talk, then yeah," he smiled dismissively.

Liara sighed and shook her head, "you’re right," she said then. "I know you probably heard it many times from many people, but when it is you say it's going to be better, I really believe it."

Shepard chuckled in response, his mood slowly starting to improve, "simple," he replied, "it is because I believe in it myself."

***

Ann walked in a small park several buildings away from the apartment complex she lived in. The place was filled with people, but felt utterly wrong: none of the bigger threes in the area were real, simply holograms, meant to replace something that was destroyed a year ago, which could look good only from a distance.

There were several sprouts planted a few months back that were real. In time they were going to replace every holographic three in the park, returning it to state it once used to be. Sadly, Ann suspected that she probably wasn't going to see it with her own eyes.

She sighed, opening the mailbox on her omni-tool, to check for the messages again. The inbox was empty, same as five minutes ago, when she checked it the previous time. She wondered if the commander received her message, if perhaps she needed to resend it just in case. Her fingered hovered over the holographic surface, but in the end she simply closed the inbox, powering her omni-tool down.

It was time to return back home, the artificial light of the space station was starting to slowly dim, indicating the arrival of the evening, yet every time she thought about returning, about entering her empty apartment and spending another evening alone she was starting to feel uneasy, loneliness settling on the bottom of her stomach like a cheap frozen dinner, making her desperate for some company, even if they were simply passers-by, whose faces were unfamiliar to her.

The wish to stay outside was strong even after the recent rise in the disappearances of people around the Citadel. Some of the message boards were filled with faces to the point there wasn't much space left.

It was strange, but even a year after the galaxy was saved, it still felt like the world was slowly going to hell.

Someone pushed her on the shoulder in the crowd and a splash of something hot splattered over her jacket. Ann raised her eyes to see a shocked face of a woman who stood in front of her with a cup of coffee in her hands. The woman didn't look like a teenager, but was dressed into a baggy cargo pants and oversized black shirt which was depicting pixelated heart and letters Ez. The woman's ears were covered with earrings, though it didn't look they were pierced. On her wrists, she wore at least dozens of different bracelets made of all kinds of materials, starting from leather and ending with the biggest one made of a light silvery metal, intricate in its design. Her hair was cut tom-boy short style, dark brown eyes filled with fear.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" the woman said, covering her mouth with the palm of her hand, "I looked down on my omni-tool for a second and didn't notice you."

"It's ok, really," Ann replied, "not going to be the first time a coffee was spilled on this jacket," she added jokingly

"I can't leave you like that," the girl shook her head as she placed her hand on Ann's shoulder, "there is a laundromat not far from here and a great cafe, so let me at least buy you a, well, coffee?" she chuckled.

Ann didn't really plan on going to a cafe and could perfectly wash the jacket at home, but the thought about returning there almost made her shiver. Anything was better than spending another evening locked in with nothing but a TV to keep her company. Besides, the simple touch of another person felt good, reminded her of how wrong she was to drift away from every her friend after her father died.

Ann smiled to the girl and nodded, "all right then," she said.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Comming soon._  
>  "...besides," Shepard added, his tone sarcastic, "we need to meet with Doctor Bryson, obtain a leviathan orb from her to speak to a race who was powerful enough to enthral entire civilizations to their will, but was arrogant enough to build the Reapers. What can possibly go wrong?"
> 
> ***
> 
> ...Garrus shook his head, "but they never explained me what is going on, never told why C-sec is so busy not to be able to spare people to investigate our case...”
> 
> ***
> 
> “Of course,” Shepard exhaled angrily, “of all the good people lost in the war, you’re the one who survived.” The barrel of his gun did not move away from the woman, but his eyes glanced downwards to a container she held clutched to her chest, as if it was the most precious thing she had left in her life...  
> ...“Oh, Commander,” she smiled, her expression the one of a person who lost any kind of grip with reality, “you don’t even know what that little brat is, what she can do, do you?”
> 
> ***
> 
> Shepard watched Hackett carefully, too afraid to blink even once, miss the sign, any indication of intentions in the man’s features. “Look me in the eyes, sir, and tell me you were absolutely honest with me,” he said, “tell me you knew nothing more about the girl than you told me.”  
> Hackett was silent for a moment, looking at the commander, then sighed and averted his eyes and Shepard felt how his heart skipped a beat...
> 
> ***
> 
> “Stay away from her,” Kaidan groaned, his pistol tracking every movement of the child, trying to find an opening on her small body, covered by the Shepard’s much bigger frame in a protective manner.  
> “Can you even hear yourself?” Shepard snapped angrily, “it’s just a small child. You harm her, I will never be able to forgive you.”  
> “She is a monster, Shepard,” Kaidan whispered, his expression was still a one of a stone-like determination, but his eyes were pleading, filling with so much pain. Shepard was sure there were tears appearing in them, even if running over his face water was making it impossible to tell for sure, “if you hating me forever is the price I have to pay for saving your life, so be it...” 


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, now I'm going towards the finish line with it. I have 2 more chapters written, which means I have only 9 more chapters to go. Here's an **important note:** [in chapter 17](http://archiveofourown.org/works/578488/chapters/1525442) I changed a little detail in Hackett and Kaidan's conversation. You don't have to go back and check it, unless you really want to, but I simply added that Hackett asked Kaidan to do something and it was not told what.  
>  Once again, beta'ed by Kunari

**Part 3**

**The Moment's Verge**

Shepard stood in the changing room in the cargo hold, looking over his charcoal-colored armor set. He found himself wanting to suite-up, even though he’d been forced to wear it more than two days in a row not so long ago. The feeling of being in the armor was nostalgic, it made him feel almost as if something lost for a long time was returned to him, like the set was a second skin he didn't know he needed to survive.

Yet their stay on the Citadel did not require armor, it was a simple task of speaking with one person while the ship was refueled and restocked.

Uwosh entered the changing room almost too quiet to be noticed, which was an amazing feat for someone of her race. She was carrying a pack made of black leather which looked soft and delicate. On top of the pack laid a traditional krogan head garment worn by females of their species. She placed it on the bench and unceremoniously started to pull off her own armor, placing each piece carefully into a locker. When she finished with her task, she then moved to pull off her under armour.

Shepard coughed, "are you aware that we use separate changing rooms for men and women for that part?" he said gesturing at the two doors on the opposite side of the entrance.

"Do my actions embarrass you?" she asked indifferently, continuing to pull off the protective layer, "I find it highly inefficient to pick up your things in one place and have to move to another to change."

"Well, I can file your complaint to the Alliance refitting team," Shepard shrugged.

There was nothing in Uwosh's body that could determine her gender at the first glance. Not being mammals, krogan didn't have breasts and the only difference concluded in the structure of their bodies, slightly wider at the hips with more prominent stomachs, but even then, the difference was a small one.

Shepard was averting his eyes, trying his best to be polite. He wouldn't have noticed even that much if his eyes didn’t settle on a large scar that was going through the entirety of the krogan’s abdomen, looking like a pattern of spiderweb. It didn't look like a cut, but more like a burn, like something extremely hot was splashed over her.

"Hmm, I think I see now why me changing here would be a problem," Uwosh said, "do all males of your specie have a habit of staring?"

Caught in the act, Shepard hurried to turn his head away, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," he said a little baffled, "it's just... what did that to you?" he asked.

Uwosh sighed, "never in my life have I thought I would need to hide it," she replied a little thoughtfully, "no krogan would ask where another got their scars."

"I didn't know it was impolite in your society."

As there was nothing else to look at in the room, Shepard's eyes returned on his own set of armor. On the background he heard the rustle of fabric before a rumble of laughter filled the room. "Oh, it's not that it is impolite," Uwosh replied, "it's just no-one would ever think about asking. I mean, there are plenty who like to tell stories about their achievements in defeating enemies and showing off the marks of their conquests, but we don't ask."

"I see," Shepard nodded, realizing he wasn't going to get an answer.

The fabric rusle seized and he spared a glance at the krogan. Now Uwosh was fully dressed in an outfit which looked similar to what he previously saw worn by other krogan females, except it was made in a mix of greens and light grays, embedded with small bronze plates which covered vital body parts, they were thin, decorative and not functional. Instead of a traditional double collar, the dress had only one and it wasn't hiding the krogan’s face.

"I don't like how it looks either," Uwosh chuckled. She stepped from one foot to another in a manner that could only indicate her uncomfortableness, "but I will need to speak with the council and it's the closest thing our people have to a traditional outfit for diplomatic meetings," she sighed.

"I don't see anything wrong with it," Shepard commented. He wanted to add that it actually looked very nice on her, but was afraid to offend her again somehow.

Uwosh chuckled quietly, shaking her head, "all diplomatic meetings require demonstration of strength among my people," she said, "except for bonding ceremonies between two krogan."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, "is that... a wedding dress?" he asked amused.

Uwosh’s glance at the commander was close to murderous, but there was a mischief in her eyes too, which told Shepard it was a pretence and not real anger, "it is redesigned," she pointed out and started to walk past him, towards the exit, but stopped in the doorway, "why are you here?" she asked turning her head to look at Shepard again, "no-one else from your crew is gearing up to go to the Citadel."

Shepard looked at his still open locker eyeing it's content unsure, "I don't know, I thought I could wear it just in case, but I guess it's only going to get me unwanted attention," he confessed, "besides," he added, his tone sarcastic, "we need to meet with Doctor Bryson, obtain a leviathan orb from her to speak to a race which was powerful enough to enthral entire civilizations to their will, but was arrogant enough to build the Reapers. What can possibly go wrong?"

***

The entire section of the Presidium ring that used to house the original Bryson’s research laboratory was destroyed and the lab itself was now relocated into a recently rebuild location in the wards. It was not as fancy as the private sector it used to be a part of, but it had an advantage of being closer to several apartment complexes. The street around it was busier, noisier, but overall it was not the worst place Ann could have ended up.

Shepard landed a taxi cab on an unoccupied parking spot and looked back at two other members of his team who joined him for the meeting with Ann. It was not surprising both EDI and Vega decided to tag along, as both of them had previously met the researcher. Shepard was happy for their company, but at the same time he wished for another member of his crew to be with him too. Yet, upon their arrival on the Citadel, Kaidan announced that he had some business to take care of and took off in the opposite direction.

Kaidan’s behaviour was making Shepard feel anxious, as it seemed like the other man was starting to avoid him. Still, Shepard didn't want to make any conclusions, as he knew his husband sometimes needed time to think, to be alone. Besides, Shepard wasn't a child unable to function without Kaidan being near him every single moment.

Trying to stop his thoughts from wandering into unwanted directions, Shepard exited the cab and turned his attention back to the office building. It was a large complex dedicated for offices and was rather mismatched. Besides the laboratory, it also housed several other businesses, as well as three stores one of which was selling used household appliances, while the other two were dedicated for a clothes boutique and a grocery.

He spotted Ann sitting on a small bench overlooking a park next to the complex, watching over every arriving sky-car, like she’d been sitting there for a long time, waiting for their arrival. Seeing the commander and his squadmates unload from the vehicle, Ann stood up and waved.

"It it good to see you," she said with a smile as they approached. She reached for Shepard's offered hand and shook it, "you too, James, EDI," she nodded to the rest of his team, before gesturing at the building in a silent request to follow and turned around, "I was already starting to think you wouldn't come," she admitted as they started to walk.

"I promised to be here and here I am," Shepard replied, "but if I’d known you would wait for us outside, I would’ve specified the time," he added, his eyebrows narrowing.

"It was my fault, really," Ann shook her head, "I could've waited in the lab instead while working on my projects, but as of four days ago, I was simply too scared to enter the lab alone," she explained.

The entrance to the building had a simple key-lock which, after an input of a combination of numbers, opened to a spiral staircase leading to the higher floors. It wasn't a particularly tall building, but there was an elevator right in a middle of the staircase, a bright holographic sign across its doors indicated it being out of order. Shepard mentally cursed as he looked up, feeling his knees starting to protest the ascension before he even stepped on the stairs.

Shepard ignored them, concentrating on the conversation with Ann, "So, how did it happen the Alliance doesn't know about you having one of the spheres?"

Ann looked at Shepard surprised, "was I required to mention I had one?" she asked, "I mean, I never tried to hide it, so if anyone from the Alliance would've asked, I would've told. In fact, I waited for someone to contact me, but no-one did."

The expression of surprise on her face seemed genuine, and not for the first time Shepard wondered how HQ could've forgotten about something so trivial. On another hand, he knew how many other matters they had on their plate, he understood their need to prioritise, so perhaps, missing a single leviathan sphere wasn't such a big deal.

"No, it's alright," Shepard smiled trying not to misguide Ann into thinking she did something wrong, "but I will have to let them know."

"Of course," she nodded in an agreement.

After several flights of stairs, they reached the needed floor and started to walk down a barely lit corridor. It was empty, but rather clean, with two rows of almost identical doors, their design a little out of place. Even while being made of metal, the doors looked more like something one could find on Earth, swinging on hinges, instead of sliding automatically into the walls like anywhere else on the Citadel Shepard had visited.

They reached the door leading into the laboratory and Ann extracted a small plastic key-card to swipe it through a reading sensor. She moved it once, twice, but nothing happened, making her frown in confusion.

"This looks like a very unsecure technology," EDI commented looking at the card from the distance.

"Cheap too,” Ann confirmed, “we didn't have much budgeting after the war," she added trying to to swipe the card again, but without success. She muttered something quietly under her nose starting to press buttons on the card reader itself.

"This card isn't going to work," EDI said as she took a step closer, several orange dots passing over her visor, "its magnet line is empty."

"It is impossible," Ann shook her head, turning the card in her hand and looking at it. It was a simple white plastic rectangle with a small magnet line on one of the side, while the other contained a picture of Ann and her full name, "it worked perfectly four days ago."

"I believe I can easily open it," EDI proposed, "if you will allow me."

Ann stepped back, making a way for the AI to come closer to the locking mechanism, "all yours," she said.

The magnetic card reader was a very old device, the one that outlived itself several times over, but it still took EDI a few attempts to crack it. She stood before the door, with her hand placed on the reader, her face emotionless and the only way to know what she was doing was to watch text scrolling through her visor.

"Is it just me, or something fishy is going on here?" Vega whispered quietly to Shepard, "I really think we should get ready for something popping out on us from behind that door."

Vega was right. A malfunctioning locking mechanism, especially one as simple and old as the one used on the door, didn't look like a big of a deal, but caution was never superfluous in their line of work. Besides, Ann herself told them she wasn't trying to hide the fact she had one of the spheres and taking into account how much Cerberus was interested in their functionality lately, it was possible they were going to walk into an ambush.

Shepard nodded once, reaching for the holster, "Ann, stay back," he ordered quietly stepping around the researcher in a protective manner.

The door opened with a quiet ping and a hiss, but nothing else happened. Still, cautious of his surroundings, Shepard gestured the rest of them to stay behind and stepped into the laboratory holding his pistol ready.

The new facility for the lab was smaller than the one destroyed during the war. It was just a simple office made up of two rooms, yet each of them was tidy with well-kept and organized equipment. It took Shepard only one glance around to determine there was no-one else in neither of the rooms but him.

He lowered his gun and almost gestured the rest to come in when he heard an almost intangible beeping coming from one of the corners of the room, so quiet, that he suspected he wouldn't be able to notice it if not for his hearing being slightly enhanced by the implants. The beeping was getting more and more frequent with each passing moment.

"Everyone, get out!" he yelled dashing for the door. He jumped on Ann, knocking her backwards and to the ground covering her with own body, just in time before an ear-piercing boom of an explosion sounded behind his back.

The first thing Shepard felt was the force of a sock weave, which pushed him even further into the scientist underneath him, then a wave of heat washed over his back. A rain of debris and dust followed suit and Shepard felt dozens of areas of pressure all over his personal kinetic barrier. Some bigger chunks were too much for the barrier to hold and it cracked, allowing the improvised projectiles through. Waves of actual pain spread over his back as the pieces of debris were now striking his uniform, some piercing its fabric and tearing into his skin.

Then it all quieted down.

Shepard carefully removed himself from the shocked scientist, who laid immovable under him and looked around. Vega was buried under a piece of plastic sheeting that was previously covering a wall. There was blood running down his arm, but the marine had already started to get up, moving the plastic away. EDI was laying next to Vega and one of her sides was scorched black by heat and fire, but Shepard couldn't see a single scratch on her metallic skin.

Shepard stood up from the ground, noting the movement echoed with sharp pinches of pain all over his right arm, leg and buttock. He tried his best to quickly examine the injuries. Most of it were glass shards or small chunks of wood, sticking from the fabric of his uniform. The thick leather part of the BDU stopped that sort of projectiles better than the kinetic barrier, but the areas not protected with leather suffered the most. The majority of the injuries were minor, barely scratches on his skin, yet there was a single point of pain that felt sharper than the rest, making it really difficult to walk.

"Well, this is ridiculous," he said looking around the half-destroyed room behind them and instantly regretted opening his mouth, letting the dust that still polluted the air into his lungs. He started to cough almost violently, but managed to get a hold on himself and rushed into the laboratory.

The explosion wasn't too strong and the metal walls of the building held, but the lab itself now laid in ruins. Thrown around the area, some papers continued to burn, the dark smoke mixing with dust, making the air became almost unbreathable.

Covering his mouth and nose with his hand, Shepard moved into the next section of the lab, which was almost empty, except for a single plinth situated in the farthest from the entrance corner. It was easy to guess the plinth was exactly the place Ann kept the sphere. The construction and the area around it were completely intact, protected with a strong barrier, but the artifact itself was no longer there.

***

It wasn't the first time Shepard found himself in this particular position, facing the wall he was leaning on for support, with his pants down, while Kaidan was crouched behind him. Usually although, moments like this held in them a little more excitement and were severely less painful.

Unable to hold back a groan, Shepard shifted uncomfortably.

"Don't move," Kaidan ordered, his voice serious, but with a note of amusement at the same time, "you’re going to make it worse."

Something cold touched Shepard’s buttock, before he felt another sting of pain and heard a sound of a tiny glass shard hitting a small metal bowl.

"Damn it," Shepard said, "thresher maws, reapers, batarians, Cerberus, I went through all of it and _never_ in my life was my ass injured!"

Shepard heard Kaidan making a sound which reminded a cough, but couldn't be anything else, but a failed attempt to suppress a laughter, before he felt another round of pain, "I swear you're doing it on purpose," he hissed.

Shepard's instincts had told him to wear the hardsuit before leaving the ship, yet he ignored them. Now he was regretting that decision.

"I can give you over to the skilled hands of the salarian medics," Kaidan replied.

Shepard carefully peeked his head into the adjacent room where two salarian medics were tending to Ann's and Vega's wounds while EDI, together with Garrus and Tali, who had arrived a few moments earlier, were talking to several C-Sec officers.

None of the members of the initial party were injured badly, but all had cuts, scratches and burns which required treatment. Even Ann, whom Shepard covered with his body, managed to get half of her calf burned and was in need of basic first aid.

Most of the doctor's attention was on Vega, as one of his arms was cut so deep it required more than a single application of medi-gel. Yet, he ignored the medics' attempts to convince him to be hospitalized, making them apply stitches on the fly.

Shepard himself had barely escaped the salarian professionals' wrath, but by that time, hearing about the incident, Kaidan appeared on the scene. Thinking fast, Shepard pulled his husband into the next room, telling him there was only one person whom he could trust with that particular body part. He still couldn't believe he managed to keep his face straight making an announcement like that, but here they were, separated from the rest by a small section of a metal wall in the unused office room next to the destroyed lab.

"Thank you, but no," Shepard muttered. Another shard was pulled out from under his skin, making him wince. He honestly had no idea he was that sensitive to pain there. "Doctor, will I live?" he asked.

Kaidan let out a frustrated sigh, "why is that every time I'm pissed at you, you find a way to remind me why I married you in the first place?"

"To pull glass out of my ass?" Shepard provided with a grin, "I'm touched."

"Touché, Shepard," Kaidan clicked his tongue and the next piece was an especially painful one.

"Feels like an entire glass factory exploded over my rear," Shepard hissed in pain and frustration. He leaned his forehead against the cool wall to distract himself, but it didn't help much.

"Don't worry, I'll kiss it better next time we get a chance," Kaidan reassured, giving his good buttock a friendly pat.

There was a familiar orange glow Shepard could see reflecting from the wall, which indicated Kaidan was scanning him. "It would've been less painful if you'd stayed in one place, instead of running around injured like an idiot," Kaidan sighed and only a moment later a cool substance was spread over his wound. Shepard felt a slight burn of antiseptic in the medi-gel, followed with a familiar tingle of the substance starting to speed up the regeneration of tissues. It was going to be sore for a few days, but it was possible he would be able to sit in only few hours.

Shepard turned around to face Kaidan. "So, you were pissed at me," he said in way it was a statement not a question as he leaned down to pull his pants back on.

"Erm, it took you two weeks to start telling me the truth," Kaidan replied standing up from his crouched position. The bowl with the shards and the pincers were still in his hands and he turned around to leave them on a small metal table behind him, before returning his attention back to Shepard, "but no, it's not the problem," he added. "I was a little pissed, but not at you, more at the situation. Sometimes things happen that no-one is to blame for, but unpleasant at the same time."

Shepard felt guilty as he remembered being glad for the same exact circumstances Kaidan was talking about. He remembered being relieved they pushed him where he wanted to be without going against the promise to be more careful he’d made to Kaidan.

"Yeah, I do know," Shepard nodded anyway. He made a tentative step which was still a little painful, but not as much as when he walked with glass sticking out of him like porcupine needles, and reached to hold Kaidan's hand. He smiled to his husband and Kaidan smiled back, but there was still a note of sadness in his expression.

Shepard hated to see Kaidan like that, hated the fact he had to keep quiet about some things. He felt a need to reassure him somehow, to make him know that no matter how many scary monsters he'd faced in his life, the thing that frightened him the most was the thought of losing him.

It was not the right place to do it, and the time was less than appropriate, but Shepard decided that for once, he couldn't care less, "I'm such a thick-headed fool," he said sincerely, "I lov--"

A knock on the side of the wall they were standing behind and a cough interrupted Shepard, returning him to the reality of the current situation. "Are you two quite done with your mating rituals?" Garrus' voice sounded from the other side.

Shepard pursed his lips, feeling a little frustrated about his friend's ability to find the most inappropriate moments to interfere, but Garrus wasn’t at fault, he picked the middle of their working day to start personal conversation. Shepard gave Kaidan's hand a final squeeze, before turning his head and leaning closer to the doorway to peek into the other room. Immediately, he was greeted with the turian's amused face. "You have something important to tell me, Vakarian, or just came to laugh at my misery?" he inquired.

"Why can't it be both?" Garrus grinned. His face darkened then as he glanced around, "can we talk?" he asked.

Shepard looked around the room and saw that the salarian medics were starting to pack. The C-Sec officers were nowhere to be seen, but Shepard suspected they finished interrogating Ann and now moved to the crime scene. The scientist herself was conversing with Vega, whose wounded arm was now bandaged, while the other was wrapped around Ann's shoulder, in a manner which looked more reassuring than anything more.

The commander gestured Garrus to join them into the adjacent room. "So, we had to miss most of the action, what happened?" he asked as soon as Garrus stepped into their side of the office.

"Shit happened," Garrus replied, "C-Sec is going to investigate, but no way they are going to find anything."

"Come on Garrus," Shepard shook his head, "I know your opinion on C-Sec isn't a best one, but can't you even give them a chance?"

Garrus moved around the small room, finding a lonely chair next to the table on top of which stood the metal bowl filled with bloodied glass shards. He eyed the bowl with suspicion, before taking a seat and switching his attention back to the commander, "it's not that," he said, "I just talked to one of them off the record, Rala, a good friend of mine. She told me they don't have enough people in the investigation department to deal with it right now."

Kaidan hummed thoughtfully, "I doubt a few cases of pickpocketing would be enough to not be able to spare a few people on something as big as an explosion, even if it's not the Presidium," he said, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't think so either," Garrus shook his head, "but they never explained to me what is going on, never said why C-sec is so busy they are not able to spare people to investigate our case. I even reminded Rala that two Council Specters are on it, but she only said we'll have to request this sort of information at the Academy," he added visibly irritated.

Shepard thought about the situation for a moment, pondering if they could figure it out without any outside help. They could convey their own investigation, but he didn't have enough people. They needed the help of Citadel Security, and C-Sec needed their input.

"We will need to find a way to convince them we need each-other. Whatever is going on the Citadel that required the attention of every detective might be connected to what happened here," Shepard said.

"Do you think it's Cerberus at work?" Garrus asked.

"Do you have any doubt about it?" Sheard replied.

Shepard was not usually the one to start throwing accusations while having too little proof to back up his theories, but it would've been too much of a coincidence if it was someone else deciding to steal the sphere approximately at the same exact time the sphere on Tuchanka was destroyed.

"Why is it everywhere we go we find those guys?" Kaidan asked shaking his head. "It's like they infiltrated every possible governmental structure in the galaxy," he said. It sounded like Kaidan intended it as a joke, but the moments the words were out, he flinched at what they actually could imply.

"Those are some scary thoughts," Garrus nodded.

The trio went silent again, before Shepard disturbed that silence. "Alright, we need to figure out where to start tracking the intruder who blew the place up," he said. "Any ideas?"

"If I may," Shepard heard EDI's voice next to him. He turned around to see the AI standing in the doorway between the two rooms. He nodded at her, indicating for her to proceed. "Both me and Tali tried to access the surveillance cameras in the building, but they were scrambled clean," she started. "At the same time, there was something out of place in the logs of the lab access I found while trying to hack our way in," she said, "Ann indicated that the last time she went into the lab was four days ago, yet while hacking through the card-reader, I noticed that the last time a card was used was yesterday. Ann's card, on the other hand, didn't work. It may suggest, that whoever stole the sphere and planted the bomb might have switched the cards during the period of two to four days ago."

If EDI was not mistaken, which Shepard highly doubted she ever could be, asking Ann a few questions was a good starting point. He nodded to the AI and turned around moving from the smaller room into the adjacent area of the unused office, "Ann," he called, "I know you might have already answered a lot of questions today, but I need your help," he said, trying to sound calm, reassuring.

Ann was still sitting on a table, surface of which was covered with polyethylene as it hadn't been used for what it seemed a long time. Her hands were rested on her knees, her head sunk. Vega stood next to the scientist rubbing circles over her shoulders and between her shoulderblades.

Hearing own name, Ann looked up, "I’m fine, Commander," she replied, "I will do whatever you need me to."

Shepard walked closer to the researcher, "I need you to remember if you ever gave your access card to anyone. It might help us track the people responsible for what happened."

Ann looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head, "no," she replied, "I've been living alone since the war ended, haven't even spoken to anyone, too focused on my work," she paused then, a frown crossing her face, "there was just that one time, the day before yesterday. A woman from the crowd spilled coffee on me. She invited me for a small dinner to a cafe next to a laundromat as a way to say sorry," her eyes widened then with a realization, "she was a little into my personal space, like flirting with me. It was incredibly uncomfortable, so I left as soon as I could, but there might have been enough time for her to switch the cards. It couldn't have been anyone else," she said.

"Really?" this time it was Vega who spoke, "it's been over a year you've been stuck alone in the lab? You need to get out more often," he said, a flirtatious smile appearing on his face.

Shepard forced himself not to roll his eyes as he looked at the major sharply, trying to indicate that it wasn't the best moment. Vega raised his eyebrow and shrugged his shoulders, like he had no idea what he was doing wrong.

Shepard switched his attention back to Ann, who was moving her eyes from Vega to Shepard, looking a little confused, "what did this woman look like?" he asked.

Ann frowned again, like she was trying to recollect, "she had short ginger hair, dyed. Dark skin, was dressed in simple pants and a shirt. Overall, not a bad looking person, but there was something off about her," she described.

Sheppard nodded, trying to remember if he saw anyone matching the given description, if he ever met that person while either working with Cerberus or fighting them. Unfortunately, hair color and a skin tone wasn't much to go on. Not to mention that every loyal Cerberus operative seemed off in one way or another.

"She might be anywhere by now," Vega pointed.

He was right, whoever the woman was, she was a professional. She used Ann's card to get into the lab, scrambled all of the cameras around the area so even EDI couldn't find anything usefull and he was absolutely sure if they checked, they wouldn’t be able to find any fingerprints either. There was nothing to go on, except for one little thing the woman had no way of knowing about. Shepard couldn’t hold back a grin when the idea came into his mind.

"Ann, could you give me the card that you tried to use earlier?" Shepard asked.

Ann nodded and reached for the pocket of her coat extracting the plastic card, offering it to the commander.

Shepard looked around, but found nothing he could use to put the card into. Finally, his eyes settled on the polyethylene sheets that covered all of the furniture in the office. He tore a corner from the one on the table and used it to pick up the card, wrapping it carefully into the transparent material.

After that task was finished with, Shepard started to make a call. Only a moment later Joker's voice sounded on the other end. "I didn't do it!" was the first thing the pilot said.

"Can you tell me if there is anyone left on board who can deliver a package at my location?" Shepard asked going straight to business, ignoring the getting old joke of a greeting from Joker.

Joker was silent for a moment, "shit," he said finally, "all right, give me a moment," the second pause lasted a little longer, until finally the pilot was ready to reply, "well, no luck, Commander," he said, "everyone's out but several guards, who are not supposed to leave. You know, in case someone will try to steal my ship. Again. It is unless you consider our new cook to be on the 'crew' list," Shepard didn't see Joker, but he could hear the apostrophes around 'crew' in his intonation.

The commander scratched the back of his neck, contemplating. "Ugh, alright," he said, "go tell him he needs to bring my varren to me. I have a job for someone who can sniff things."


End file.
